Just Another Day at the Office
by SliverOfSilver88
Summary: AU. Ino Yamanaka is the secretary of genius lawyer, Shikamaru Nara. She wants nothing else but for him to notice her. It's been ten months and no results. The answer? Why, make him jealous of course! For lovers of office scandal! .Inoxlots. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: Well. Here we go. I've started yet another story, that, hopefully, will not follow in the same way as my others, and will actually be completed._

_Hehe._

_Disclaimer: No. They're not mine. If they were, Ino would be in it a lot more, Kakashi would not be late for visiting the memorial, but because he couldn't walk properly, and I would be rich._

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**Let's go girls**

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**Prologue: The Deal**

The office.

It was a place of incredible opportunity. It was a place where people worked in close spaces, struggling to beat each other and rise through the ranks. It was a place where high bosses would walk among the desks, able to personally inspect each and every thing that went on in the building of their control, where dramas like none other had the possibility to unfold. Where class was valued as the high apex of conduct, where men wore million dollar suits and the women thousand dollar shoes, where rivalries, bitchiness and backstabbing were common factors, associated with even the purest of intentions.

The office was brilliant, where she was independent, hard-working, not overlooked by anyone. She was her own person! Her own self! Nothing could -

"… I'll need that all done by tomorrow morning, at the latest," he told her, letting a stack of papers drop heavily onto her glass-top desk and interrupting her office-place musings.

Ino sighed, eyeing the stack unappreciatively. All the same, she made an effort to look through it – at least she could see what she was dealing with – and was shocked at what she saw.

"Mr. Nara! These are documents you should have filed weeks ago! These are notes and records from some of your biggest, most important cases, you -"

He cut her off. Bastard. But he was like that. No complaints. Ino understood he was busy. She usually didn't have a problem with doing work for him. Hell, she had to prepare for when they were married and she would take care of his laundry and everything, didn't she? She listened to his age-old excuse with a strange, bittersweet fondness.

"Things like that are just too troublesome for me, Ino…" Shikamaru Nara, genius lawyer of Konoha law firm told her, waving a hand idly her way and excusing the matter.

"Yes, sir. Okay then, sir. I'll have it done by then, don't you worry." If he was anyone else, then she would have told him where he could stick his bloody paperwork. As it was, Ino offered him her best smile.

He didn't even look at her. It was the same situation she had been in ever since she started working for him.

"Thanks, Ino," he said lazily before ambling back over to his own office, letting the door click shut softly behind him.

Ino's smile dropped. He hadn't noticed _anything_ that she had done that day! She had a completely new wardrobe, her hair, for once, was left out, and she'd gotten new jewelry, all for the sake of getting him to notice her – _just once!_ She slammed her head on the desk, groaning.

"Didn't notice you again, huh, Pig?"

Ino growled, raising her head to shoot a venomous, blue-eyed glare towards the secretary of the only other person that had a reputation almost as famous as Ino's boss.

"Shut up, Billboard-Brow. Has Uchiha even given you the time of day before? At least Shikamaru trusts me to help with his work. Uchiha won't even let you organize his desk."

Ino took comfort in the true fact. It was probably one of the only reasons that she hadn't yet given up, gone insane and moved on to something else. Seeing someone fail even worse than her was a ridiculously uplifting feeling.

Just as expected, Sakura Haruno bristled and snarled, fixing her hair and pulling her skirt down in what Ino recognised as an agitated habit.

Ino's little comment had annoyed her, then.

Well. That was the point.

Oh? Oh. She was saying something….

"I speak to Sasuke all the time! We do heaps of stuff together!"

Ino rolled her eyes, deeming that it probably wasn't worth tuning back into the conversation in the first place. "Yeah, right."

To try and prove her point, Sakura pressed the button on her speaker and leant forward into it. Her pale green eyes sparkled with determination, and Ino hoped to God that she wouldn't be proven wrong.

"Sa- … Mr. Uchiha, is there any work you need me to do this morning?" she asked in a tone that would make any sane person want to throw up. Ino knew she sounded the same when she tried to speak to Shikamaru – and it was similar on those rare occasions when she got to converse with the gorgeous head of the firm, Neji Hyuuga. But hypocrisy was a part of her personality, and Ino had accepted it long ago.

Plus, the voice was just a part of the job, strolling hand in hand with the role of the obedient, fawning secretary. Neither of them could really help it.

There was a brief moment of dull, tense silence, where both the secretaries stared at each other. Sakura was biting her lip, staring fiercely at her blond rival as she waited for her reply. Ino chewed the inside of her cheek subconsciously. As proud as she was, she didn't want to be proven wrong under any circumstances.

They jumped as static came through the speaker, clearing as the cold, arrogant voice of Sasuke Uchiha spoke through the device.

"….No…. I won't need you today, Sakura…. You should probably just go home…." There was another small burst of static as Sasuke severed the connection.

Sakura stared, hurt, at the speaker as if it had just butchered her life beyond all hope of repair. Ino couldn't hold herself in, and burst out laughing. She never was one for pity – not towards people she didn't like, anyway.

"Oh, _oh_! He _loves_ you! Obviously!" Ino cackled, holding her sides as she rocked back and forth on her swivel chair. People at the desks further down in the office, who catered for the less influential, brilliant lawyers, looked at her and sighed. By now they were used to the all-too-common catfights between the two beautiful women.

"Shut up, Pig!" Sakura howled, throwing the wireless mouse at her blond rival.

Unfazed, Ino kept going, wincing inwardly and restraining herself from rubbing the bruise that was no doubt already forming on her shoulder.

"Even Shikamaru's more responsive than _that_!"

"Fine!"

Ino started in surprise as the pink young woman stood up, causing a loud crack as she slapped her hand on the top of her desk.

"This is serious now!"

"What?"

"If you think Shikamaru is better than Sasuke, and you're _so_ popular with him, then you should put your money where your mouth is!"

Ino stared blankly, and wondered if she was joking. What was going on? Somewhere along the line, Sakura had lost her.

"You've lost me."

Another young woman who worked on the floor above them as Mr. Hyuuga's personal assistant – Tenten, who despised the term 'secretary' – walked between the two desks, giving Sakura a down-the-nose look before entering the elevator and disappearing behind the doors. Sakura sat down, eyes closed, breathing deeply.

"Listen, Ino-Pig," the woman said, eyeing the mouse that she had thrown before regretfully. "First one to get their man, wins."

"And…?" Ino prompted. She was studying to one day be as good as Shikamaru in the courtroom – she didn't plan on being a secretary forever. If there was one thing she had picked up during her studies, it was to _always _get _all_ the details before agreeing to anything. Ino loved loopholes – exploiting them _and _using them. Sakura took the secretary job to save up for med-school next year. She just wouldn't understand.

"And what?"

"How about this," Ino started, leaning her head on her hands and giving Sakura a challenging stare. "The first one to get a kiss - that is returned beyond reasonable doubt - is the winner. And it has to be in front of the other – or it can be in a picture or something, whatever. Either way, it has to be seen to be believed… Now… the loser…" she trailed off, trying to think of a good punishment.

"I know!" Sakura said, clenching her fists in excitement. "The loser… has to quit, so that she'll never bother me again."

The words sent Ino's pride roaring, swelling to an alien proportion. What made the stupid cow think that _she _would be the one to win?

"What? Bother _you_! It's you that'll be leaving, Billboard!"

"So it's a deal then?" Sakura asked, a smug, confident smile on her face.

Ino smirked back at her, tossing her blond hair out of her eyes.

"Deal."

* * *

**The best thing about being a woman**

**Is the prerogative to have a little fun**

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_I'm an Ino fan. Can you guess?_

_And yes. That's Shania Twain – be afraid!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Heh. Things start happening here a bit. Ino's going to sound like such a ho in this… Ah well. We knew we all wish we could be in her position, don't we?_

_Pairings: InoxKiba, ShikaxIno_

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**It's still enough time to figure out**

**How to chase my blues away**

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**Chapter 1. **

_I can do this._

Ino walked into work the next morning with yet another new item of clothing. It was thin and light and violet – her favourite colour – with buttons on the front. Ino had left some of those buttons undone, pulling the attention of every male she had walked past on the way from home to work. She wore a black business skirt on the bottom, with a pair of plain black high heels, and a jacket to go over the top. Before she went to see if _this time_ she would make an impact, she picked up the stack of paper that Shikamaru had dropped off to her the day before, all completely organized, up to date, and ready to hand in to Mr. Hyuuga.

She peeked into her boss' office, smiling fondly as she saw him asleep and buried amidst a hundred different books and notes, a pen still held idly in his hand. Tip-toeing in, she put the files on the chair in front of his desk, then went to work cleaning all the mess he had managed to create for himself.

_Bloody hell… wake up, would you, Shikamaru?!_ she thought as she purposely went about dropping paperweights, staplers and other office equipment onto the floor to see if he would wake up. To her annoyance, it took quite a bit to rouse him - almost ten minutes! But, the important thing was, she succeeded.

"Mmm… Ino? What are you doing?" he yawned. His head didn't even make it off the table to look at her. His expensive suit was wrinkled and untidy, his tie loose around his neck.

Ino was lucky she had enough self control to actually look at _him_. She had a thing for tousled men in suits. What could she say?

"Oh! Mr. Nara! I didn't mean to disturb you -" The tone was there, innocent, surprised and sweet. Any man would have accepted her in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Shikamaru Nara was not just any man.

"I find that hard to believe," he muttered. "With all of the heaviest things I own being dropped onto the floor…. I know it's troublesome to question you like this, but I get that you're not that clumsy. Did you want something?"

Oh. Snap.

Cursing herself for the stupid thought in the first place, she decided to change the subject. The bastard hadn't even raised his head to look at her! Sometimes, she wondered why she even bothered.

Ino rolled her eyes exasperatedly. _Fine. Be a bitch… What to do now… Uh…_

…

_That's it! Flattery! Everyone likes flattery!_

"You're very dedicated, Mr. Nara, to have stayed here to work on your newest case all night…. The debate on Ms. Tsunade Sannin's divorce suit is difficult, I know. I've read the file case. If she was having an affair… then it is hard to decide who gets what, isn't it, sir? The men are having a hard time of it, on top of their conflicting - um… Ehe… Sorry…. But it's difficult, isn't it, sir? You must have been up all night - judging by how tired you look."

It annoyed her that she had stumbled and trailed off at the end of most of her sentences, but her mind was really not working at that point.

Shikamaru's eyes were now open, but they stared through the glass of his desk, at his expensive shoes.

"…I've only been here half and hour longer than you have."

Ino blinked. No way! Surely, after ten months of working for him, she would have seen him coming and going to work? She racked her brains. No. She had just thought that he spent all his time at the office, not that he got there at reasonable times and fell asleep anyway.

"Oh…"

Well. To say the least, things were awkward. She could just _hear_ the crickets chirping in the background, emphasizing their silence. Ino wanted just to slap herself – or him – or better yet, _Sakura_ for making her feel like she would have to rush. Yes. It was Sakura's fault. That worked…

Unfortunately, it was not Sakura's fault that her stupid legs _would not move_ so she could _get the hell out of there_.

"I have to work," he said suddenly, breaking the tension that had gathered between them. "You're distra-" At last he looked up, and stopped mid-sentence, a blush reddening his cheeks. Ino was delighted to see that her new blouse was doing its duty. Maybe this wasn't a complete waste of time!

"Distract… ing…. Troublesome!" he barked, grabbing a book and burying his nose in it. Taking the hint with a grateful grin on her face, Ino up and went, looking back just before she completely left the room.

"Remember, Mr. Nara, if you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask."

She went to turn away again, putting one foot out the door.

_Come on, say my name, Shikamaru. Don't let me leave. Come on, please?_

How strange life was sometimes. Just ten seconds ago she had wanted nothing more but to leave, and him to forget that they had even had that conversation. Now, she just wanted him to ask her to stay.

"I-Ino?"

She turned, making sure her hair flicked over her shoulder as she did so. Ino loved her hair sometimes.

"Yes, sir?"

Shikamaru grumbled to himself, keeping the book right close to his face. Secretaries were meant to help, weren't they? Ino wasn't helping. She was…

Distracting….

He shook his head, trying to speak around gritted teeth. The lazy, uncaring façade was proving difficult to keep up at that precise moment in time. How… urgh.

_Women._

"I need to get this done…. It's troublesome, but I have to… meaning, I need to stay awake."

Ino nodded politely, although she was slightly disappointed. So no confession of deep and undying love? Better luck next time.

"I need coffee."

She flashed a brilliant – if fake – smile, and bobbed her head.

"Whatever you want, sir."

Ino was waiting for her order in the coffee shop across the road from the office when she noticed her pink-haired adversary was in the same vicinity, and neither of them had yet made a scene – an event practically unheard of, as far as they were both concerned. The Haruno looked like a bright perky lolly in pink and white. Just like Ino, she had bought a new outfit to try and gain the attention of her boss.

Ino reflected back on the first time she met Sakura, Shikamaru, Neji and Tenten. It had been at a strange work… camp… thing. The big boss' cousin had organized a get-to-know-each-other week away, to promote friendship, cooperation, and other such things at the start of the year. The whole firm was there – not just the new secretary recruits…. It was so strange, getting to know most of them while they were casual and, well… _normal_. It was winter, so people got cold, huddling up to each other for warmth, and showing that _no_, they weren't all invincible. Sasuke had been there too. Ino remembered with a faint smile how she _made_ him accept the fact that yes, she was cold, and _der_, she was going to take as much body heat from him as she could.

While thinking, Ino had still been staring blankly in Sakura's direction, looking, but not really seeing. Sensing someone's eyes on her, Sakura turned, and Ino readied for the chaos that usually resulted in their meeting.

"… H-hello, I-Ino. Good m-morning, Sakura…" sounded a meek voice, stopping both women in their tracks. They turned to look at the dark haired cousin of the firm's CEO, Hinata Hyuuga. How coincidental. Ino had just been thinking about her.

"Oh… morning, Miss Hyuuga," She smiled, trying to remove any signs of her previous aggression from her voice and body-language while speaking to the shy woman. She liked Hinata. She was so sweet, and kept her cousin in check whenever he got too carried away with demotions, firing and other such punishments. "How is Mr. Hyuuga? I haven't seen him on our floor once this week. Not even to punish Mr. Nara for being slack."

It always amused Ino when Neji Hyuuga came storming through the office, his pale eyes blazing, and his hair – that could easily rival her own – swinging in a long silky sheet down his back. Everyone would part before him, his presence enough to instill admiration even into Sasuke Uchiha, and they would watch him throw open Shikamaru's door without hesitation, appealing to Shikamaru's pet hate of being interrupted without announcement. Even though he was usually a calm, composed young man, sometimes Shikamaru's reluctance towards _everything_ got on the high boss' nerves. The genius lawyer was only kept around because he could destroy anyone and everyone when he got into the courtroom. No matter what Neji had tried, he rarely got any results outside of it, though.

Hinata smiled and played with her fingers nervously. "C-cousin Neji r-realised w-what it takes to m-make Shikamaru work… He d-doesn't need to g-get angry anymore…"

"Huh?"

Ino realised she had just stumbled across a helpful source on the inner workings of Shikamaru. Hinata, as the master of Hyuuga Corp, and the owner of the _whole_ Konoha company, and not just Neji's branch, knew everything there was to know about the people that worked for her. Why she had not thought of imploring for her aid before escaped the blond. Maybe it was because Ino was sort of afraid of her. Hinata was regularly looked over, but there were rumours about the things she had done for her company. Neji was not the true mastermind – or so office rumours said.

"What do you mean, Miss Hyuuga? What is it that can actually get a response out of him?" she asked, ignoring the hiss in her ear of '_that's cheating!_'

Stupid wench Sakura. Just because _she_ hadn't thought of asking for help from the Hyuuga heiress. Ino knew the rosette wouldn't try the same source of information – that was a pride thing – so she had Hinata and her knowledge all to herself.

"W-Well… Sh-Shikamaru only ever t-tries if something is… very, very i-important to him, or if there's s-someone to m-match him…. Ever since w-we employed S-Sasuke, and m-made them work together… h-he has been responding m-more and m-more positively…. He s-says although i-it's troublesome doing work, it's more s-so if he has to undo b-bad work and then start f-from s-scratch anyway…. I-In the long r-run, it's easier for him to d-do everything himself…."

As if thinking she had far surpassed her daily word count, she moved forward in the line, saying she hoped she had been able to help.

Ino stared at her. _Sakura-Big Brow, you'd better start looking for a new job right now_.

People in the shop looked at her strangely as she jumped with excitement and impatience from one foot to another as she waited for her coffee. She knew exactly what she would have to do.

Shikamaru was determined to be the winner – he had gone to extreme lengths to prove that pretty – er… gorgeous… no… _beautiful_ – Sasuke Uchiha would not beat him – and so she would make him lose. After attracting his attention, she would make herself available to practically anyone but him. Gone were the days of no-action, I-hope-he-notices-me Ino. She would _make _him notice her.

--------------

She pondered the dangers of her plan while in the elevator, on her way up to the eleventh floor. If she did start seeing other men – possibly _lots_ of other men – and _he_ saw – which was the idea – then he could just call her a whore and totally ignore it. Or he could just be angry and not to speak to her at all. _Or_ he could just think her completely below him and she'd lose all hope of them ever getting together.

… Damn….

That would be bad. Maybe she'd test him out first, make sure he wouldn't get too offended, or put off….

So, who would her first target be?

The secretary held the rail inside the elevator for balance as it stopped suddenly. She had hoped for an unbroken ride to the top, but it had been interrupted on the fourth floor. Ino waited to see who would get on. The lower levels – from six down – were usually swarming with police and private eyes. Actually, come to think of it, she'd heard good reports about the people down there. Sure, they obviously weren't as sophisticated as the lawyers and magistrates of the top floors, but she supposed they would be okay for what she needed. Maybe Shikamaru would be struck with the _Hey!-but-what?-I'm-so-much-better!_ thought.

Just maybe.

The elevator doors slid open slowly to reveal a tall young man with shaggy brown hair. By the looks of the gun at his hip and the logo on the arm of his jacket, he was a copper. Well, maybe he wasn't the highest of authorities, and was simply middle class, but Ino figured she could use him as her guinea pig. Unless of course he turned around and was as ugly as dog spit on toast.

She watched, approving his personality as he laughed and waved to who she supposed was one of his friends – another, _very_ tall man with a high turtleneck, sunglasses and a heavy trench coat, who Ino figured would be one of the PI's – they all looked as though they had something to hide.

She grinned as he went to turn so that he would face her, and quickly stepped up close to him, preparing herself for the sacrifice that was to come.

Oh… how she had loved her outfit…

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**I wanna feel the heat with somebody**

* * *

_I know you all want to dance with somebody. Don't deny it. It's pointless._

_Oh, reviews would be nice, if you wanted. It's just a bit of fun, so I suppose you don't have to, but whatever._

_My parting words for today are..._

_Kiss, kiss, fall in love!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: Okay, so I'm trying to pace myself here. Problem is, I'm eager to get this one out there. Bitten off more than I can chew, perhaps. I always get too far ahead of myself. This one's out a day early, due to my appalling amount of self control. Thank you to all who reviewed, I love you all dearly._

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**So don't debate**

**Play it straight**

**You know he really doesn't**

**Get it anyway**

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**Chapter 2.**

"Ah!"

"Shit!"

Ino was knocked backwards against the elevator wall as the man turned around, now almost completely covered in scalding hot coffee. She didn't hold back on the exclamations of pain – or the swearing – as she tried to get it off.

"Shit! I'm so sorry! Here, let me -" Ino's possible victim bustled, looking for a part of her that had been wet that wouldn't make him look like a pervert if he started to try and wipe it clean.

"No! No," Ino snapped. "Just… stop. You've done enough -"

"Hey, hey! You're Ino Yamanaka, aren't you? The Nara genius' secretary! You…. Oh shit! I'm so fired! I'm sorry!" He ran a hand through his hair and looked around, as if searching for an escape route just as soon as the doors closed behind him. He looked almost animalistic – like a cornered dog.

"You're not fired…. Though you probably should be. I can't go back to the office looking like this! This suit was _NEW_ you know!" She pouted up at him, and noticed on his badge he worked with police dogs, and wasn't only a copper himself.

"Okay! Alright, I'm sorry…"

He became less apologetic when he found out he wasn't fired. Bitch! But, Ino supposed, she wasn't _really_ going to be kind to him later. He could take this chance to be a jerk while he still could. Ino vowed to make it so that he would be under her complete control. When she was through with him he wouldn't _dare_ be so dismissive of her.

"Here… take this." He hadn't even pressed which floor he wanted yet. Well. She'd just have to take the lost puppy home, huh?

Ino accepted his heavy jacket smugly, wrapping it tightly around herself. Not a bad start if she _did _say so herself. What a good catch he was turning out to be…

"Well… I suppose it'll just have to do, won't it?"

…didn't stop her from being a bitch though. If he worked with dogs, he'd understand. The pack leader has to assert his or her dominance. He needed to know who was boss.

Their little exchange had lasted a couple of floors, and as the number eleven flashed on the small screen, Ino pushed past her new acquaintance and strode through to her desk, losing him among the bustling people as they shoved and pushed like animals in a stampede. She was used to it. He was not. He was probably too afraid that he would have to pay a hundred thousand for any suits he touched. Ha… Officers….

It annoyed the blond to find that Sakura hadn't gotten back from the coffee shop yet – which was a real shame. It would be amusing to see her reaction when she saw what Ino had picked up on the way back.

She opened her new jacket and took her nametag from her ruined shirt, placing it on her front as if everything was normal. It struck her that she didn't actually know her guinea pig's name yet.

"Hey!" she called out across the rows of bent heads, harried colleagues and slacking co-workers alike. "What do they call you then?"

"Kiba!" his voice answered from somewhere Ino couldn't properly distinguish. "Kiba Inuzuka! Where are you?"

Ino chose to ignore the question, and set to work making a pass for him – he would need one if he was a copper in lawyer's territory. She sniggered as she wrote out his name in big, over-exaggerated, curly writing, contemplating the addition of love hearts and sparkles. If he didn't like it… well….

She'd just have to train him better, wouldn't she?

During the creative nametag process, she kept glancing towards the office of her boss to see if he would come looking for the coffee she was meant to bring him. The odds weren't in her favour at all, she realised, but perhaps today was going to be lucky for her.

By the time she had finished Kiba's pass, and he had at last managed to find where she was, Ino gave up on Shikamaru's surfacing and decided to make sure the rest of the office knew about her and Kiba, even if he wouldn't. She growled to herself as the young man looked around in awe at the expensive layout of her work environment, and made the comparisons to his. It would be so much easier if Sakura was there! If Sakura knew, then it was impossible for everyone else _not _to find out.

Of course, she could go to the Uchiha and just tell him out of the blue – he was probably the one who saw Shikamaru the most, even though neither of them appreciated being within the same room as each other for any given amount of time. No… Sasuke probably wouldn't do what she wanted… he never actually talked except to fight with Shikamaru, so nothing would happen. Well, maybe if Sasuke wouldn't work, then….

No. She could do it herself. She would make him see just exactly what he was missing out on.

--------------

The blond sniggered as Sakura walked in to the office, and gave an absent nod every time Kiba stopped for breath. She was sitting coyly on her swivel chair behind her glass-top desk, while he was leaning against it, one hand on the surface. Ino wrapped his jacket tighter around herself and scowled as Sakura didn't even notice. The pink woman was hurrying to put down the notes and papers she had been carrying so that she didn't look cluttered when she brought Sasuke's coffee to him.

"… where I am. So what's it like working…" the young man rattled.

Ino eyed Kiba with a calculating stare and decided that she could definitely take the chance with him. It had crossed her mind once or twice that she could possibly be rejected by someone she was going to use. Kiba seemed comfortable, though. Ino was confident he would respond to anything she felt like doing.

"… is better if you can relate to the rest of the people you -"

Ino could barely remember what he had been talking about, and it seemed he wasn't thinking about that anymore either. She was practically sprawled on her desk, making sure everything that would make even the slightest noise was sent flying, just to make sure Sakura wouldn't miss it. She smiled the most dangerous smile she could with her lips pressing into another's, before breaking away, careful not to look at her pink rival _just_ yet. Kiba's eyes were wide with shock, but his expression quickly changed into something else. Ino was guessing by the wolfish grin he had adopted that he had enjoyed it, and probably wouldn't say no if she needed to do it again. It amused her that he tried to be cocky, but there was still a hint of blush across his cheeks. She left one hand at the back of his head, buried in his hair, while her other arm rested lightly around his lower back and he opened his mouth to speak.

She was saved the trouble of the 'afterwards' conversation by Tenten, who came in scolding them angrily for fooling around and not being at work.

"And who are you? You obviously don't belong on _this_ floor. Get out! Who gave you permission to be here? I'm reporting this straight to Mr. Hyuuga," she threatened, calling over a security guard before disappearing into the elevator and leaving them with a parting glare.

Kiba looked to Ino for support, but she just winked at him, pulling away completely and scrunching the pass she'd just finished behind her back.

"But, what about my -" he started as he was 'escorted' from the floor by the firm's number one security guard, a bubbly, enthusiastic fruitcake by the name of Lee. When Kiba had been sent back to work where he belonged, the green cyclone whirled his way back to Ino, checking to see if she was okay. Sakura left in a hurry, darting away in the general direction of the photocopier.

"Was that man _harassing_ you, Miss Yamanaka? Such an act is unyouthful and -"

She cut him off. Otherwise he would go on forever.

"- In breach of the right to work without sexual harassment. My studies aren't all for nothing you know," she winked. "Anyway, Lee, how are things going with Sakura?"

His eyes surged with burning, crackling electricity at the sound of her name before he sighed a sigh only the most lovelorn among us could ever hope to accomplish. Poor Lee. It annoyed Ino to see how Sakura treated him.

"I think…. I think she has feelings for another man," he said solemnly, looking pained as he turned briefly to look at the closed door of Sasuke's office.

"Oh, Lee…. Really?" Ino said sympathetically. It seemed obvious to everyone but him. Sakura had never liked Lee, and had been smitten with Sasuke ever since that work camp. To be truthful, Ino had liked Sasuke a lot too, and she had dated him back in high school – not that they ever talked about it. After all, it didn't matter, she liked Shikamaru now. What had happened between her and the Uchiha in school was never to be brought up again. That would just be messy.

… Though….

She could always try to use the Uchiha too, along with the slew of other as yet unknown males that were part of her plan. If she offered him a no-strings relationship, she could sabotage Sakura at the same time. After all, Ino was sure he still had a soft spot for her anyway. She shook her head, tuning back into Lee. That was unnecessarily cruel. That was crossing a line.

Oh. Since when had she grown a conscience?

Troublesome….

Oh God. She'd starting thinking like him.

"…. But even if my affections are not returned, I will still protect her till the day I die!" Lee was vowing fiercely. He clamped a hand tight around the hilt of the gun on his belt – a weapon that _everyone_ knew he did not need to kill someone. Ino knew Lee was telling the sincere truth when he said that. He had been in love with Sakura ever since the pink-haired girl had started working at the Konoha law firm. Unfortunately, she had already seen Sasuke.

"Sometimes, I think you're too good for her Lee," she said, standing and bringing him into a tight hug. It was the nicest way she could say 'Sakura's a stupid whore, just forget about her' so that he wouldn't get offended or angry.

An insistent cough alerted Ino to another presence near her – one she had not noticed approaching. She released Lee and gasped as she saw Neji Hyuuga himself, in all his beautiful, sleek, well-groomed glory. Wearing another guy's big, lumbering jacket and being covered in coffee, Ino felt hopelessly outclassed – well… even more that usual when in the presence of her boss. The Hyuuga gave her a blank look.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm…"

"Never fear, Mr. Hyuuga!" Lee shouted, punching the air and striking a pose. "I was just -"

"Lee. Get back to work," Neji said flatly, his peculiar pale eyes staring at the security guard with an overall air of intolerance.

"O-Of course! I'll do my best to protect the people in this company!"

With that, Lee left to return to his place he had been in before, setting himself the challenge of standing stationary for two hours straight. Ino looked after him, trying to avoid meeting Neji's stare. She focused on the area around his throat, and bit the inside of her cheek. It was impossible to look _anywhere_ on him without her getting distracted. He had always had that strange ability. She gulped.

"Relax, Miss Yamanaka. I won't bite," he smirked.

Genuinely surprised and semi-disbelieving, the blond blinked, being, for once, completely at a loss for words. She looked up, thinking that she should show at least some form of mannerism while talking to the man that had complete control over her pay slip.

"Now, Miss Yamanaka… Tenten has informed me about what happened a couple of minutes ago. For what reason did you bring someone like that young man up to _this _floor?"

"Uh…"

Oh. Just kill her now. He knew about how she had kissed Kiba? Of course… that was the general idea – to get people to know – but now she felt like he was going to murder her. She felt guilty about it, while talking to him. Maybe that would pass though, with time… and numbers.

When she could not give an answer, he raised an eyebrow and chuckled darkly, reminding her horribly of the calm before a storm she knew would never come.

"I hope you realise the standard we set here," he said after a while of staring at Kiba's jacket and the coffee-covered clothes that could be glimpsed slightly beneath it. "Half of this business is image, Miss Yamanaka. I would have thought you'd know that."

"Yes sir…"

"…. But that jacket… it isn't actually yours, is it?" He sniffed and wrinkled his nose. "It smells like something someone on the _very_ bottom floors would own…"

Ino apologised silently to Kiba before telling the big boss a super-exaggerated version of what happened – of course leaving the part about her knocking into him on purpose conveniently out of it.

Neji Hyuuga nodded, smirked, and paged Tenten, who appeared attentively at his side in less than two minutes. Ino blinked. How did she do that?

"Tenten, I'm sending Miss Yamanaka here across to buy herself some new clothes…"

"Very good, sir. That's very generous of you…. Looks like she needs it, too," the brunette frowned, looking disapprovingly at Ino's current clothes. Ino wondered if it pissed Mr. Hyuuga off that he had been interrupted. She had a sneaking suspicion it had.

"I'm going to ask you to take over her position for a while." Neji didn't give her the time to answer, and all the assistant got was a brief glance, so he did not get to see the indignant look on her face. "Thanks, Tenten."

Neji handed Ino his ID card and told her to make an account for herself in his name in the boutique across the road.

"Ask for a man called Kakuzu. He'll look after you. Get whatever you want, and how much you want, as long as it's under the fifty-thousand dollar mark. Don't listen to him if he wants you to spend any higher. You'll end up casting me into debt. Once you start with him, its difficult to stop – that is, if you're new."

Ino's eyes widened, and she actually took a step back, attempting to give him back the card.

"Mr. Hyuuga! This is too much! And I can't just ask Tenten – I mean, Miss -"

"Are you trying to argue with me?"

Ino froze, clenching the card in her hand, unsure of what to do.

"Well, are you?"

"No! I'm going now, sir!" Ino started to edge away, not liking the idea of turning her back. Suddenly, she was hit from the right by a flowery-smelling, clingy thing.

"Billboa – I mean… Sakura! Please watch where you're going!" the blond snapped angrily, trying to shake the woman off while smiling reassuringly at Neji. She was bright red with blush, realising she looked a fool in front of her handsome boss. She tried to think of what his extensive amount of money could do when applied to clothes shopping, and how getting the most amazing outfit _ever_ would help her attract the attention of Shikamaru, instead of wandering how low the Hyuuga's opinion of her was now.

"Sorry, Ino. It's just, I heard what you were saying, Mr. Hyuuga! And I completely agree! She's looking particularly hideous today! How nice of you to -"

"Tenten!" Neji barked angrily at the brunette who had grudgingly taken a seat at Ino's desk. Sakura and Ino jumped, but the secretary looked up lazily, as if she felt she had better things to do.

"Yes, sir?"

"Why are the people on this floor dressed so shamefully? _You're_ in charge of the women here. Why don't you reprimand such atrocities as _this_?" He pointed to Sakura, who turned bright red with embarrassment and indignation. Ino snorted, giving the man a mental high five. "Both you girls, get out of here, go to Kakuzu, and don't you dare come back until you've got something decent to wear. It's fifty thousand for the both of you. Just go," he told them, watching as they gibbered their agreements and took off in the other direction.

"You don't mind covering both of them, do you?" he asked lazily, sticking his hands in the pockets of his suit pants.

"Of course not, sir."

He was answered coldly, but he took no notice. Tenten would do whatever he asked. He knew that.

"Good."

"…Ino? I need you to -" Shikamaru froze as he saw the blond that usually sat at the desk had been replaced by a disgruntled, unappreciative brunette. He looked disbelievingly at Neji. "Where's Ino?"

"I sent her away. She's gone."

Neji watched with amusement as his top lawyer's face changed from lazy apathy to brilliant anger. "You fired her? For what? I'll sue the ass off -"

"I sent her shopping, Shikamaru Nara," Neji yawned, enjoying the patronizing role he had taken. "If you have any objection then please, speak normally and rationally. We're both adults after all."

Shikamaru withdrew behind his usual slouch and looked at his boss, annoyed with himself. Usually, where Ino was concerned, he tried to keep things as unnoticeable as possible. That morning… with the blouse….

She was just too good for him. It didn't matter that he was a genius. She was beautiful. He couldn't compete with that. No one needed to know how he felt about her. She was probably obsessed with that fucking Uchiha anyway, like most of the other women in the building.

"Yeah, whatever…. Why did you send her?"

"She was wearing the jacket of a young man from the lower floors, and quite frankly, that's just not acceptable."

Shikamaru looked down at his own suit, un-ironed and dirty from yesterday. He probably wasn't all that presentable either.

"Stupid pig," Tenten muttered, rolling her eyes. "Embarrassing us like that…. And the behaviour with that policeman… disgraceful…. Oh… did I forget to mention that before…?" She spoke idly to herself, jabbing at Ino's keyboard unappreciatively while considering deleting half of her files.

The lawyer and the CEO snapped around, both demanding for her to repeat what she said. When each man noticed that he was not the only one who had done it, they took their eyes from Tenten, glaring daggers at one another. Shikamaru even let out a low growl.

"Oh… There's nothing to repeat…. It doesn't matter…" Tenten yawned, grabbing some files left by the computer and proceeding to sort them out as both men proceeded to glare, each angry because of the reaction of the other.

"Don't you have work to do?"

Shikamaru snarled, turning on his heel and retreating back to his office. Everyone occupying the now-silent floor flinched as they heard the violent slamming of his heavy door, and were surprised that he had not managed to snap it right off its hinges.

**

* * *

**

Hey, hey do that crazy thing!

* * *

_Hehe. The Offspring is love_

_And my words of wisdom, right now?_

…

_Life's a bitch and then you marry one?_

_Nah._

_How about this:_

_It's good for a man to eat his thistles, and remember he's an ass._


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: Oh goodness. I'm so depressed. Nobody reviewed the last chapter… Does that mean I'm bad?_

_-ANGST-_

_Parings: InoxItachi (ish)_

_Warnings: Just some bad language from my favourite masochist in the _whole _world._

**

* * *

**

Hey mama where's your pretty little girl tonight? 

**Tryin**' **to run before she can walk?**

**That's right.

* * *

**

**Chapter 3… ish?**

As soon as they were in the elevator, out of Neji's line of sight, Sakura let go of Ino's arm and started wiping her hand on her clothes, as if she had touched something disgusting. The blond snarled at her rival.

"This was a gift from Mr. Hyuuga! You stupid bitch, why do you have to ruin everything?" she complained, more annoyed than actually angry. She needed to let off some tension anyway – Neji's mere presence was enough to wind anybody up. Sakura was like a verbal punching bag.

"Get over it, you whore," Sakura scowled, crossing her now 'cleansed' hands.

Before Sakura began to start her next sentence, Ino cut in. "Oh, you're just pissy because he hated your clothes even though you weren't covered in coffee or wearing a copper's jacket. I guess you're just inferior to me, huh?"

Sakura growled and turned her back. Unfortunately, the effect was lost due to the enclosed space. Ino snickered, but left her alone.

----------

Grasping Neji's ID card as she walked cautiously in the expensive boutique, Ino was almost glad to have Sakura by her side. Even if the rosette was annoying and stupid and _painfully_ sweet, it was good to have someone with her when strolling head on into unfamiliar territory. Everywhere she looked she saw dresses, suits, tops and pants with prices set high enough to make her dizzy. There were a group of men in one section of the store, with someone attending and dressing them, but other than that, it was deserted. Ino doubted that there were many people who could actually afford the beautiful merchandise.

Giving each other stunned looks, and choosing to leave their rivalry idly in the corner for awhile, both women approached the desk, with Ino clearing her throat in what she hoped was a polite but firm sort of way. Unfortunately, she sounded more like she was coughing up something quite undesirable.

Either way, she attracted the attention of one of the men, and he stalked over to her, staring with green eyes that would put Harry freakin' Potter to shame. Lacing his fingers together and placing them on the counter, he blinked slowly and asked…

"Can I help you?"

It was obvious by the look on his face that it was an insult to actually have someone dressed as Ino was in his shop. Sakura hid behind the blond, glancing over at the men in the corner - who were now being led around by a handsome man with dark red hair - to distract herself. He pulled things off the racks and held them up to each of them – there were three – before either shaking his head in disgust and putting the clothes back, or adding the garments to an extensive pile already slung over his arm.

"Are you Kakuzu?"

The green eyed man continued with his blank, drilling stare. "I am. What brings _you_ here? I don't think that my store caters to what you two might be… looking for…. Or can afford," he sighed under his breath, so faintly that they almost couldn't hear. "If you want to 'keep it real' like you seem to be doing now, then you may have to go elsewhere. I'm sorry." Kakuzu went to move away, one hand resting on his waist as he started back towards the redhead and the three customers.

"S-Sir! Neji Hyuuga sent us!" she flashed him Neji's ID card, along with a hesitant smile.

In an instant, Kakuzu was at Ino's side, suddenly as friendly as could be. She could not see the bottom half of his face thanks to a high-necked, tight shirt – quite possibly one of the oddest pieces of fashion she had seen worn outside of a magazine – but she thought he was smiling.

"Mr. Hyuuga, hm? He's a good customer of mine, and of _course_ I am honoured that I have come so highly recommended. He wears a lot of my stock."

"Y-Yes! We thought as much. He always wears such beautiful clothes, when I walked in, I could tell," Ino smiled nervously, slightly freaked out by the strange man.

Kakuzu seemed delighted at the compliment, making Ino surer of herself. She mentally scorned Sakura for not saying anything though, and making her do the talking. Silly girl….

"Well, if that's the case…. My partner, Sasori, is currently occupied at the moment – we have a few young men in here for a photo shoot later. Such is the busy life of one such as myself." Kakuzu spoke while idly gesturing to the redhead – Sasori – and the people he was serving. Ino blushed as one winked, one grinned, and one – who was mostly hidden by his comrades - smirked at her.

Models, then? What a great day this was turning out to be.

"What is Mr. Hyuuga's limit on you two? He has accounts for several other people here. Tell him that he's behind on his payments when you see him next, won't you?" Ino nodded, but he wasn't looking at her. Instead he was pacing the rows of beautiful hanging dresses.

"Sakura and I both have a fifty thousand limit," Ino told him as they moved from the formal section into work-wear.

Kakuzu snorted, rolling his eyes. "He's always been cheap. He forced five thousand off the last jacket I sold him. It's a shame such pretty things as yourselves can't be lavished on just a _touch_ more by a man with so much money…. I hate cheapskates."

He muttered the last bit vehemently to himself, and Ino wondered if he did that often. Far be it from her to judge, though.

Glancing to look at Sakura, she saw the disbelieving look she carried. Truthfully enough, if they had been asked to describe their boss to someone who knew nothing about him – although how that was possible neither of them could fathom – 'cheap' would _not_ be one of the words they would use.

"I- I wouldn't call him that, sir," Sakura said. Ino nodded, looking at the retreating back incredulously.

Kakuzu turned around, raising his chin. "Unfortunately, my dear, you don't know him like I do."

Both women said nothing as he started to pick out clothes to wear.

-----------

Surrounded by mirrors on all sides, Ino admired herself from every possible angle, striking stupid poses and laughing to herself. She knew Kakuzu was standing right outside the change rooms, because he was talking to Sakura about how she needed a different sort of cut shirt to properly show off her chest. He left to find her something else as Sakura poked her head around the door.

"That could have been very bad if you had done that just a second later," Ino said flatly, fixing a dull, blue-eyed stare onto the rosette. "I only just got finished dressing."

"You have nothing I don't have," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. Ino wanted dearly for her to say something about the clothes she was wearing, but it looked like it would probably cause her physical pain to do so, so _just that once_, she decided to let it slide.

…_And I have plenty of things you don't have… bitch…._

"Come out into the big mirror," the Uchiha's secretary told her, yanking her out of the safe little enclosed change room and into the open store to look at herself in the mirror.

"Does it work? Tell me honestly," the blond implored, spinning.

"Yeah, yeah…. You look…."

It surprised Ino that Sakura didn't just immediately finish her sentence with some sort of insult.

_Perhaps,_ she mused, _we should make an effort to be friends?_

Lost in thought, Ino stared at the Haruno next to her in the mirror.

"What? What are you staring at? There's nothing on my face, is there?" Sakura shrieked, clapping a hand over her face and fussing over herself in the mirror.

The blond blinked dully.

_Nah…_

"Deidara! Sasori! I've got a bone to pick with -"

The call caused both girls to turn towards the person who had spoken, even though they weren't being addressed.

"Oh…"

Ino and Sakura met the gaze of a well-off looking young man with silver hair, standing halfway across the room, who was glaring at them both as if it was their fault he had gotten their names wrong. Ino thought irately about how hopelessly blind one had to be to mistake two _women_ in _skirts_ for two men.

"You called?"

The girls jumped as the tailor with the red hair seemed to appear from out of nowhere. Of course, he had just emerged from one of the change rooms, a bunch of clothes hanging ready over his arm and two pins in his mouth.

"Yeah!" the silver model shouted, stomping towards them and stopping just short of Sakura, who was next to Sasori. "You got the fucking sizes wrong for this fucking shirt! _Again!_ How's a man supposed to get his fucking job done when the guy who gets paid to fucking dress him is a fucking _moron_?!" the man berated, undoing the suit jacket he was wearing to reveal a ridiculously tight-fitting dress shirt with next to no buttons done up. Ino attempted to maintain a polite, indifferent smile, while at the same time trying to look at his _face_.

"I left two shirts on the counter, Hidan," Sasori said. His voice was calm, but with an undercurrent of strong disapproval and intolerance. "You must have grabbed -"

"Sasori? Why is this so big? You remembered my size, yeah?" The voice came from the change room on Ino's right – the same one that Sasori had just emerged from. Sakura edged away from it, attempting to get out of the crossfire, while Ino was starting to feel trapped as so many good looking men started to mass around her. Sasori offered her a quiet, strained apology before responding to the question.

"I think you took Hidan's, Deidara. There were two -"

"When I got there, there was only one," Deidara answered, stepping out of the change room and coming face to face with Ino. "Oh… Hey there," he said softly, the smallest of smirks gracing his lips.

"Hi," she said awkwardly – they were very close. Under normal circumstances, she would have shot herself for the note of surprise that oozed through the small word as she greeted one of the _prettiest _guys she had ever seen, but at that point in time, she was too ticked off about his hair. The similar style, she didn't mind so much, but….

His was definitely nicer. Bitch!

"So _you_ took it, yeah?" he asked Hidan, slowly turning from Ino and looking at the other model.

"Why the fuck would I do that? What? Are you calling me an idiot?" Hidan screeched, throwing his arms in the air.

_Temperamental…._ _Compared to this guy, I'm an angel. Wow._ She wished she was important enough to swear whenever she wanted and not get fired because of it.

"Where's the other one…" Sasori muttered under his breath. "Surely _he's_ able to bloody dress himself…" Hidan started to speak again, but was interrupted by the swing of the third change room door. Ino's breath hitched at the next person she saw.

"…. Itachi!?" she blurted, completely gobsmacked. The handsome man turned to her, angling his head elegantly.

"Oh. Hello, Ino…."

You could have sliced through the air with a knife, it was so thick. Everyone got hints of unresolved business on their part. Deidara was looking over his shoulder at Itachi with an amused grin on his face, and Hidan was staring suspiciously between man and woman. Sakura was staring at the older brother of her boss with an open mouth. She'd never seen him before, but he was legend around the office. Apparently, Sasuke's work obsession had developed just to better this one man.

"…. I haven't seen you in a while…."

"Ehe… no, you haven't," she gabbered, holding tightly to a chunk of hair and twisting it anxiously around her finger. "N-not since high school."

It had been so long since she had been made to stutter like that. Ino prided herself on being a strong woman, but she knew, that no matter what she did, Itachi would always, _always_, have that effect on her.

"Hm…."

"Well at least you've managed to dress yourself," Kakuzu snapped as he too, entered the fray. "You two, take off the shirts and swap them. _You_ two -" he gestured at Ino and Sakura, who stood straight and to attention, "- I've got some more things for you to try on." He shoved piles of clothes into their arms and pushed them into the change rooms to get dressed. Ino was glad she didn't have to look at the curious face of Sakura any more. Did she _really_ feel like explaining the relationship between her and the Uchiha brothers to her rival?

The answer was quite simple: No. Way. In. Hell.

**

* * *

**

She'll be okay 

**Let her have her way

* * *

**

_Hmm…_ _I like that song… Warren Zeevon… It's called tenderness on the block…. Sort of makes me sad though._

_Anyway, if you like the story, let me know._

…

_And today I have to say…_

_Hm._

_Well, it's not so much advice… but it gets me thinking…_

_It's not the bullet with my name on it that worries me. It's the one that says 'to whom it may concern'._


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: Ooh! I can't even remember what chapter this is!_

_Can I look at it when I post it and edit it in the documents section?_

_Yes!_

_Could I be bothered?_

_No!_

'_Cause I'm a lazy jerk!_

**

* * *

**

I'm seeing this girl 

**And she just might be out of her mind

* * *

**

**Chapter ?**

"Hey there. I'm sorry to bug you, but do you know Kiba Inuzuka? I sort of have his jacket."

Ino could hardly believe she had sought out someone on the lower levels to speak to, but here she was. It was incredibly doubtful that anyone in the upper floors would know of Kiba, so she was forced to go straight to the source. The blond she was talking to pushed aside a bunch of grisly crime scene photos and snapped around, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I know Kiba."

Ino tolerated the quick once-over he gave her. She had heard that walking through the lower floors could be really disconcerting because of the character profiles that everybody made of each other. The Yamanaka had no doubt that everything she was doing was being categorized and examined for further glimpses into her personality.

Honestly… people some days.

Let him not know that lawyers – and those aspiring for the position – did the same thing. Let him not know how similar lawyers and policemen actually were – _that_ would put a strain on the superiority complex of her people. Couldn't have that now, could she?

"You couldn't take him to me, could you?"

Ino didn't know why, but he seemed so familiar. Something told her he had some sort of affiliation with Sasuke, but…

"Hm? Oh! Right…."

Ino sighed to herself. She'd picked a genius to show her around. Wonderful…

…

He was cute though….

Must be a blond thing.

"Hey, are you Ino?" her guide asked her suddenly as he dodged around desks and men with loaded guns. "Because Kiba told me about you before. He said you were on the eleventh floor. Is that true?"

"Darling, where do I look like I'm from?" Ino grinned, crossing her arms over her chest.

What _did Kiba tell you about me before?_

"Ha. Good point. I just didn't believe him at first…. I'm Naruto by the way." He offered a hand with a good-natured smile. She looked at it pensively.

"Hey."

After shaking the hand – somewhat awkwardly on her part – she continued to follow him, passing all sorts of people on their way to Kiba's desk.

"Naruto, how far away _is_ Kiba?"

"Eh? Mm. Kiba might be with his best mate Shino, who doesn't often like to be found. It's a constant game of hide and seek around here…. He's usually at the firing range though…."

Annoyed but ignoring the fact he seemed to jolt out of a self-induced stupor every time she started talking to him, indicating that he didn't really seem to be listening, she continued on anyway. Why did Kiba spend all his time shooting?

"What for?"

"Wants everyone to know he's not just a glorified tracking system, I think. Of course, we all know he's not – fun to take the piss out of him though. He says that he should repay Miss Hyuuga."

Ino got the gist that something had happened between Kiba and the heiress, but did not want to ask about it _just_ yet. She would find out though – there was no doubt about it.

"You know Hinata?"

If she was speaking to _anyone_ on the floors above their current one, she never would have dared use the first name of the wealthy woman.

Naruto looked down at her and grinned. "Course I do. Everyone knows Miss Hyuuga. You lawyers think you're flash, but the community's tight down here. Miss Hyuuga owns the firm, she knows us all. She doesn't just pay attention to the high-priced bastards like Neji does."

The first name basis that he had with Ino's handsome high boss was not lost on her. Obviously, he wasn't so popular on the lower floors as he was respected on the higher. They didn't give a crap about him down here. She ignored the high-priced bastards comment. That was exactly what she was.

….Maybe they weren't all that similar after all.

Ino followed Naruto to the elevator, waiting patiently for it to come and get them. She decided she was going to find out a little more about Kiba then, instead of keeping him on her 'make-him-jealous' list without knowing if he was a twisted psychopath. Who knew about cops these days?

"So, how long have you known Kiba?" she asked, keeping her eyes cemented to the wall in front of her. Naruto had a sort of unnerving ability to want to spill your secrets to him, and as she contemplated what would happen if she told him her plans for Kiba, it suddenly occurred to her how many enemies it was possible to make if her little plan went awry. She didn't want the whole police floor on her case – _that_ would be somewhat difficult.

…

She could just seduce them too, right?

…

_Whore._

…

"I've known him ages. We went to school together. I swear I know _you_ from somewhere else, though…." He stared at her for a minute, half grimacing as he tried to remember.

"We never dated, did we? You're not an ex of mine, right? Because that would be embarrassing, me not remembering you or anything..."

"Uh… No…."

"We should have," he said thoughtfully taking a step back and looking at her again. By the time his eyes reached back up to hers, he had realised the sudden danger he had put himself in. Ino Yamanaka was not someone to be taken lightly.

"Just kidding! I get it – you and Kiba…. Hmm….You never played soccer, did you?"

Ino raised her eyebrows, surprised. "Yes, actually. I played on my school's mixed team. Why?"

Naruto shrugged and grinned, stepping into the newly-arrived elevator. "You just seemed really familiar, that's all. I think I remember where I met you before."

Ino thought back to her high school days, forcing Sasuke to come with her to one of the soccer carnivals, strolling around with his arm firmly in her grasp, enjoying herself to no end as she showed off her gorgeous boyfriend…. Being on the field, playing defense and taking even the strongest guys head on with no real fear….

… Being smashed into the mud by an overenthusiastic winger….

"Oh my _God_! I remember you!" she shouted, looking at him properly. "I played you before! You knocked the crap out of me!"

He grinned brightly, not at all perturbed about her sudden indignation. "So it was you! I remember, because I had the bruises your boyfriend gave me for about a week."

Ino smiled back at him, temper coming to a slight simmer instead of an overflowing rage wave, and wondered back then about how he had actually managed to get a real reaction from Sasuke the Stoic. The black-eyed boy, as soon as Ino had hit the ground, had launched himself on the orange-clad kid, sending both of them to the ground as they proceeded to bash the shit out of each other.

All rather amusing, reall – er… No. It was horrible to see them… fighting… and… stuff….

"Don't worry, Sasuke had some of his own."

"Oh, I know. He wouldn't stop complaining. Not out loud, obviously, but I didn't get rid of the death glares for a couple of months. Bastard…"

"What? How did you – do you – know him?"

"Primary school, football team, next door neighbours," he answered shortly, wincing a bit. "And then he decides to go out on a limb and not recommend me here. Dickhead…. I mean, I got in okay enough, but after he developed that phobia of his, he wasn't too pleased that I was getting ahead of him, and dropped out early. Says policing is for the weak anyway."

Ino burst out laughing, leaning against the elevator wall. She wondered about his phobia, though. She hadn't known Sasuke to really be afraid of anything.

"Well, Naruto. I think that you've easily got to be my favourite person today. Nobody speaks like that about Sasuke Uchiha anymore – at least not openly. Shikamaru throws the occasional dart at a picture, and grumbles about being forced to work with him, but that's the farthest anyone goes."

Ino sighed forlornly. Such a tragedy.

"Darts in a picture, huh?" Naruto asked, rubbing his chin. "That's pretty open, I'd say."

"He keeps it in a box inside his desk," she winked.

Obviously, someone as good and as pure as Ino Yamanaka had not gone through her lazy boss' desk…. No. He'd told her all about that in a deep, intimate conversation they had had once.

Naruto laughed, stepping outside the elevator and striding down the hallway to find his friend.

------------

Entering a room screaming with gunshot sounds wasn't the safest sort of thing Ino could have imagined doing. She subconsciously walked closer to Naruto as he strode confidently into the range, yelling for his fellow officer. Ino flinched as suddenly the blond man stopped, frozen into place, with a cold grey gun at the back of his head.

She hadn't even heard him approach.

"Gotcha."

Even though she recognised the voice, Ino didn't let herself relax until the weapon had been put away – stuffed into a holster at the copper's hip, for lack of a bulky jacket to hide it with.

"You wanna take me?" Naruto challenged, turning and pulling his own gun, pointing it in the cocky face of Kiba Inuzuka. Ino took a step back, unused to the brawls familiar around the lower floors. Lawyers fought with words. She was so out of her zone it wasn't funny. Her hand balled into an uneasy fist, buried deep in the jacket she was carrying.

In response, Kiba flashed a quick grin before focusing complete attention onto Ino.

"Oi. Loser. Put it away," he frowned. Ino thought it would be entirely justifiable if she kissed him senseless with gratitude at that point in time. She did not like guns. These two men, aiming readily at each other with loaded weapons _made purposely_ for killing terrified her. She managed to control herself, staying completely still – even if she was wearing an expression similar to a deer caught in headlights.

"Pussy," Naruto sniggered, before seeing the expression on the secretary's face. "Oh, shit…. Sorry."

Once she couldn't see the pistol, she had reverted back to her old, confident demeanor….

Sort of.

"Ha! Why would I care?" She started to back away slowly, smiling like a freak. "Mr. Nara is probably expecting me. I'll see you two later!"

She turned tail and trotted off quickly, viewing the upcoming elevator as a haven, away from the less-than-safe lower floors of the police department. Hell, even the forensics labs and morgues above them would freak her out less. She didn't fear _death_ so much as she feared the possibility of it. She had just stepped inside, jamming her fist against the 'close door' button when Kiba practically dived through the closing passageway, half-tackling her in a way that would have made any footballer proud, and by so doing, pinning her securely against the opposite wall.

Having a good-looking, no doubt willing, panting man pressed up against her that she had felt like snogging senseless just a moment before did nothing to help Ino's already appalling self-control issues. Kiba's elbows rested on the elevator wall on either side of her head, his body crushed up close. There was practically no space between their faces, and Kiba could make up every single shade of blue that made up her wide eyes. Ino bit her cheek subconsciously, feeling hot breath on her lips.

The moment, where both parties tried to maintain conscious thought and control, was shattered when they began their ascent to the eleventh floor. The situation was being controlled by something even more fragile than a hair trigger, and it set off both of them as Ino's arms wrapped tightly around his waist, tugging him to her as he dipped his head down and caught her lips with his own in an eager, enthusiastic kiss. She felt hands move from the wall behind her to wrap around her, tangling in her hair and running up and down the length of her back as she slipped her tongue inside his mouth. Thoroughly enjoying herself, Ino was too disappointed to really be embarrassed when the elevator stopped on the ninth floor and a slightly overweight man interrupted their little session, which hadn't really even gotten off the ground. They both stood at the back of the lift, Ino in one corner, Kiba in the other, a scowl on her face, a smirk on his.

Kiba cleared his throat noisily, determined that he wouldn't just get pushed away this time. He glanced her way, satisfied with the tousled hair and clothing she was trying desperately to smooth down. She was still clutching his much-loved jacket, and it amused him to no end to see how she refused to look at him.

"So…"

"So what? So nothing," she snapped, putting a stray piece of hair behind her ear. She hadn't meant to sound like that – she was just a little flustered. Kiba flinched at the sudden chill in her voice, and responded the way he usually would – even though she was not a usual person.

"Bitch."

"Oh? So I'm a bitch, then, am I?" she screeched. The third party in the elevator cringed, wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into. Kiba was amazed that Ino's voice could put even the loudest of banshees to shame, but wouldn't back down.

Of course, he did understand that she was a princess, separated from everyone else, up on her high, golden, jewel-encrusted pedestal. It was, after all, the common attitude of those on the upper floors – but he would be damned if he let a lawyer's secretary get the better of him. She had to be brought down a notch, otherwise he'd never see her again, and as much _shit _as he knew it would put him in, he _wanted_ to see her again. Many, many times more.

"Yeah! You heard me! I can't think of any other way to describe you!" he shouted, turning to face her and raising his chin to her in a classic display of dominance.

Unfortunately, Ino had never been one to back down – not to police officers that she had met just three days ago that she was going to use to get her boss jealous….

"You prick! You are _so _gonna eat those words!"

She didn't even know why she was arguing with him, not to mention why she had just sounded like a pathetic little teenage schoolgirl. Ino knew exactly what she was, and bitch was a neat description. Far be it from her, though, to think about her actions.

"Oh yeah?" he snarled, aware of how things were going downhill, and desperately trying to think of ways to patch it up with her later.

"Yeah," she hissed, narrowing her eyes.

Now it struck her. Kiba was her guinea pig, and so she had to experiment with him. If he came back after an argument like this then he was worth keeping around. He was a prime contender for a loud-mouth, angry relationship – difficult to manage, but all around passionate as well. He could be her let-off-steam man, who she could hate and love but ultimately still _use_, as long as they stayed angry at each other. Plus, maybe if Shikamaru saw a fight between them he'd play the handsome knight in shining armour, and save the beaten-down damsel in distress.

Her. Not Kiba…

Well, she'd have to act again for that one.

Fair enough.

The tense moment was interrupted by a small beep and an announcement about the floor they were on. Ino waited first for the other man to get off, before storming off after him.

"Hey! You still have my jacket!" Kiba shouted, starting after her.

Ino swung round, shooting a glare that made him take a step back, before throwing his beloved jacket back to him with some considerable force.

"Take it, you asshole!"

The doors closed on his irritable face, and as soon as she couldn't see him anymore, she let out a pleased, "Yes! Well handled, Ino!" before turning and taking up her usual post at her desk outside Shikamaru's office.

**

* * *

**

Yeah, Yeah 

**Oh man, she's got issues and I'm gonna pay**

**Yeah, Yeah**

**She's says she's the victim but she takes it all out of me**

**Out of me**

**Out of me**

**Out of me**

**Out of me**

**Out of me**

**Woop**

**Yeah!

* * *

**_Woo! Offspring again! Hehe, she's got issue's. that's an awesome song. And was it necessary to put the repeats in? I'm in an annoying sort of mood right now. So yes._

_Oh, and I'm going away for xmas, so I might try and get another like… one or two chapters out after this one, because I'm nice and stuff._

_Is that a good idea?_

_Oh! And my quotes. Okay…_

_Flattery is the art of stroking one's mind with your tongue._

_Haha… I don't think its _meant _to be perverted._

_Well. I know its not meant to be perverted._

_It's just –_

_Yeah I'll stop._


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Note: Ooh, I'm going to Tamworth tomorrow, so this will be my last update for like… a long time. For a week. I wanted to get the xmas part out around xmas, but its just not going to work, so… well. I can't really help that. Merry Christmas to you all though, and I hope you get everything you want :3_

_Pairings: SasukexIno, ShikamaruxIno (finally. I know), some NejixIno. Hehe._

**

* * *

**

We are young 

**Heartache to heartache**

**We stand**

**No promises**

**No demands**

**Love is a battlefield

* * *

**

**Another Chapter?** **Ohmygoodness.**

"What was that?" Sakura asked, peering at her blond colleague as she booted up her computer and moved documents out of her way.

"What?"

"You stupid pig, what do you think I mean? _That_! That whole scene!"

"Oh? Kiba?"

Yes, Ino Yamanaka was definitely a bitch. She just couldn't help herself. She was feeling confident, elated, and more than a little impressed with herself. Naturally, the only way to top that was being an ass to Sakura.

"Oh? So you actually know his name, do you? That comes as a surprise to me," the rosette sniped, smoothing the skirt of her expensive suit, courtesy of their new best friend, Kakuzu the salesman.

"Well, that's what I'm here for," Ino answered brightly, enjoying the furious look on her rival's face. "I live to entertain you, my darling."

Sakura huffed, but quickly wiped the look off her face as Sasuke emerged from his office, looking tired, messy and harried, but with an eager glint in his sable eyes. The secretary stood eagerly to attention, ready to do whatever he asked.

Sasuke shot Ino a glance before handing the Haruno a yellow envelope and bending forward slightly to whisper in her ear. Sakura tensed, bit her lip, then nodded, before shouting an almost soldier-like "Yes, sir!" and taking off towards the photocopy room.

Once she was gone, Sasuke turned his attention to the suspicious blond woman sitting at the desk on his rival's side of the room. They both watched each other, Ino with a slight, creeping anxiety, and Sasuke with a cool, calm demeanor – at least on the outside.

"You… look good today… Ino."

Did he mentally murder himself for sounding like a lovestruck idiot?

Yes.

Did she notice that it was a stumble, and not just think it was an example of how he was so uninterested that he didn't even have to bother with a proper sentence?

No.

She was more freaked out by the fact Sasuke Uchiha was talking to her – _nicely_ – after their… interesting… history together.

She smiled at him, choosing a cheery way to go about the somewhat awkward situation. "Thanks! So do you, as always!"

He barely smiled. Maybe his lips quirked half a millimetre, but that was it. He did, however, nod his head in acceptance of the compliment, before opening his mouth to say something else.

"Ino!"

The all-too-familiar voice of Shikamaru Nara made Ino smile genuinely. The strange vibe between her and the youngest Uchiha dissipated into nothing as secretary looked to boss with the same dedication that Sakura displayed for Sasuke.

….

Of _course_, it was more subtle. And she didn't stand to attention, shout her acceptance of a mission, and fly off.

"Ino, I need you to -" Shikamaru broke off, looking with calculating eyes between the Uchiha and Yamanaka, taking in every single detail. Sasuke and Ino. His body language, calm and cocky, hers, tense and nervous. What had been going on?

"Yes, sir?" Ino prompted, frowning as he looked at Sasuke.

"What are you looking at, Nara?" Sasuke glared reproachfully, moving his hands from his pockets, crossing his arms, and lifting his chin.

"Ino," he continued, trying to ignore the interruptions, "I need you to do something for me." He spoke carefully, beckoning her to stand and follow him into his office. Ino smiled and walked readily right behind him, feeling the intense stare of Sasuke Uchiha boring into her back.

--------------

Once in the safety of his office, Shikamaru explained the situation.

"I just figured out how we can prove the Sand murders false. Apparently, the accused, Gaara Sabaku, was suffering from mental instability, and a possible case of sleep-walking due to stress, where he doesn't remember, and didn't have control of, anything he was doing. All that on top of what I think is PTS from the murder of his father, not too long ago. Uchiha was meant to be working on the personal criteria of our client, while I searched for possible defences to tie in with the evidence he had found, but he was shabby. Didn't do anything anywhere _near_ properly. Says he had other, more pressing cases to deal with."

_Probably his stupid brother again…_

"Congratulations, sir," Ino smiled happily. Shikamaru looked at her briefly, then jerked his head away to hide the brief flash of contentment that crossed his face.

"Yeah…. Anyway. Uchiha isn't all too pleased with my revelations, so I'm worried he might find the notes and pass them off as his own. I'm going to have to get you to deliver them straight to Neji on the twelfth floor. No time to go through anyone else, and there's no one else I trust." Not to mention he was already paranoid about what had happened while he had stepped out of his office about an hour ago to stare at the clouds on the top of the roof.

He spoke as he rifled through the papers on his desk, his client's chairs, in cabinets and on shelves, unaware of how much happiness his last comment brought to his blond secretary and too busy thinking about how when he had come back, Ino hadn't been there to stop anyone from just going in and doing anything.

His secretary started to help him, fantasizing about how best to make sure Kiba wouldn't be too pissed off when she told him they wouldn't be seeing each other, and that now Shikamaru Nara had finally noticed her, they were going to take the next plane to Vanuatu and enjoy a tropical holiday before coming back and getting married.

"What does it look like, sir?" she asked, noticing the trouble he seemed to be having in regards to finding the important case notes.

"It's in a big, yellow envelope, with - … Ino? Where'd you go?"

The door slammed behind her as she left, bolting from the office as fast as she could.

--------------

She caught Sakura just as she was slinking out of the photocopy room, towards the elevator.

"Give that to me, you bubblegum bitch!" Ino demanded, standing in the doorway and blocking the rosette's only escape route. "That's Shikamaru's!"

Sakura hugged the yellow envelope, still warm from the modifications she had made to the owner's original signature, and shook her head defiantly, pale green facing off against bright blue as each woman fought silently with their equally as powerful wills.

"No way, Pig. This is Sasuke's, and he asked me to deliver it to Mr. Hyuuga! That's exactly what I'm going to do!"

Stalking towards her like a cat towards a mouse, Ino bared her teeth. "He stole it from Shikamaru!"

"No! It's the other way around! Sasuke doesn't have to steal! He's a genius!"

Ino made a grab for the envelope. "Give it, Sakura!"

"Never!" she screamed, and bolted under Ino's arm, out the door and into the elevator, frantically pushing at the 'twelve' button. Ino shoved people out of her way in an effort to get there with her. She turned to look over her shoulder at Shikamaru, who was standing next to Sasuke, watching her intently, biting his lip and scowling as he saw Sakura had it, and was getting away.

"It's okay, Shikama – I mean… Mr. Nara! I won't let Sas – I mean… Mr. Uchiha – win! You can count on me!" she called, leaping and almost killing herself as she landed with such force in high heels on the floor of the lift.

The elevator doors shut on two screaming women, fighting over a large, yellow envelope.

-----------

Shikamaru glared at the deeply-hated Sasuke Uchiha. It was severely unusual for him to actually feel such dislike for someone – hatred took a hell of a lot of effort, after all – but the sable-eyed man with his pretty-boy looks just infuriated him to no end. Under normal circumstances, he would have been delighted to have someone take half of his workload off his extremely weighted shoulders, but when it was an asshole like Sasuke, who couldn't even _begin _to match up to Shikamaru's certain brand of expertise, things were just way too troublesome. The other man seemed to have some interest in his secretary, too, which was another factor that didn't help his case.

_Ino Yamanaka and her freakin' fanboys…._

It was true. She could barely walk through the office without the highest possible percentage of male heads turning to look at her. Of course, Sakura was the same, but Shikamaru had no interest in the girl. She was a very pretty young lady, but she was so far into Uchiha obsession that it was hopeless ever to even _try _and talk to her. After all, the first time he had met her – at a weird, wacked out work… camp… thing – she had barely been able to work on the teamwork puzzle she was meant to be solving with him, too busy watching Sasuke and Ino, as the blond held tightly to the Uchiha's arm, complaining about the cold.

Granted, it was only because it took him two minutes to actually figure out the whole thing - and it was a good temporary distraction - that he even did it himself. He would have loved to sit there goggling like Sakura did. Unfortunately, he liked to think he had slightly more dignity than that.

Shikamaru snapped out of his daydreams as Sasuke started to speak. His cool monotone voice grated like a rasp through the mind of the Nara genius.

"I hear she's dating someone from the lower levels, you know," he said casually, smirking at the carefully blank look on his colleagues face. "Some idiot. Works with dogs. Such a shame, you know. She could do so much better."

Little did Sasuke know, the comment had pleased Shikamaru more than disheartened him. Someone from the lower levels? Surely, as average as he was, he was above someone from the police departments. Maybe he was in for a shot?

"You think she'd go for someone like you?" Shikamaru asked flatly.

Sasuke's laugh should have been enough to freeze the water in the cooler, chief gathering point of gossip in the office. It caught Shikamaru's attention, and he looked at the handsome man suspiciously, a feeling of overwhelming foreboding sweeping over him.

"She already has."

---------------

"A Christmas party? She's not serious…."

Neji actually spoke out loud, his disbelief was so strong. The high boss of Konoha law firm had just finished a meeting with a very, _very _important client by the name of Temari, daughter of the late billionaire Mr. Sabaku, who had come to speak to him about her brother's murder case – and had not noticed the stack of invitations on his desk until half way through. Needless to say, it made things harder when he was too appalled at the idea of some bright red, unknown envelopes sitting unopened, just to his right, to focus on anything else. Trying to reach for something right in front of you, while at the same time pretending to be paying attention when someone was speaking, was never a good recipe for a productive and successful exchange. But Temari Sabaku was a professional. She knew what she had doing.

For the good of them both, she had ignored it.

Neji didn't waste any time at all. As soon as she had turned her back and left, he had ripped apart the red envelope with gusto, revealing the horrific idea beneath it.

_**You have been invited to Konoha's first ever Christmas party!**_

_**Held: 8:30pm to 1:00am, Ichiraku RSL, 19th December**_

_**RSVP 13th December**_

_**We hope to see you there,**_

_**Neji and Hinata Hyuuga**_

_**Please circle your answer below**_

_**Sure! I'll be there with bells on! No way! I'm the Grinch's best friend!**_

_**This invitation is good for you plus one**_

What the…

Since when had he approved this?

Neji sighed.

Hinata rarely consulted him on things anymore. Gone were the times of the unconfident little girl he once knew. Nowadays, she had grown into herself, fulfilling everything the family expected of her – and more. She still stuttered, but she was easily one of the strongest people Neji knew. The high boss of the firm grumbled to himself, rubbing his temples and staring at the paper of the invitation as if he could see right through it, straight to the trouble he thought it would cause.

_Next thing I know, it'll be a trivia night, or it will be compulsory to wear a stupid Santa hat… or both…._

His head slid from between his hands to thump less-than-gracefully on the desk, where it was quite happily resting before two screaming psychopaths – better known as Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno threw open his door, smashing and shoving at each other to get to him first.

Now, seeing two women fight over him should not have been such an unwelcome sight, but this time was different. He was _so_ not in the mood to deal with the two secretaries.

"Mr. Hyuuga, sir! Mr. Uchiha has -"

"No way, you stupid – Mr. Nara got all that information!" Ino hollered, cutting Sakura off and snatching at a bent and beaten yellow envelope, which looked like it had just come back from a war. The rosette tried to hold it away from her, but Ino succeeded after reaching over her rivals shoulder. Sakura tried to push her off, but only managed unbalancing them both, so that they toppled to the floor.

Sighing for what seemed like the umpteenth time that morning, Neji raised his head slightly to peer over the top of his desk at the two women on the floor. A slim eyebrow was raised.

"Are you two quite done?"

Sakura and Ino glared spitefully at each other before answering back.

"Yes!"

"There was never anything to begin with!"

"Yeah, right! Unless you stealing from Shikamaru isn't anything!"

"I did _not _steal, and neither did Sasuke!"

It occurred to the high boss, as he sat back wearily, that he had been quite forgotten, and he didn't appreciate it. People these days… they just had no proper respect.

He sat as still as a statue, fingers entwined elegantly, in his big, comfortable, leather, spinning chair, and waited for them to finish.

…

His patience was wearing thin. Very thin. Neither of them had emerged from behind the desk yet. They just kept shouting at each other, and the occasional yelp of pain was heard as they beat each other over the yellow envelope.

Finally, Neji did the only thing he could think of – he had to call for Tenten. He had learned long ago to stay out of the path of rampaging women. Not many people knew this, but Hinata and his family had him so whipped.

Sneakily, he reached a hand towards the intercom on his desk.

"Tenten?"

Her voice was slightly distorted by static as she answered. "Yes, sir?"

"Come here, please… I have a situation…."

"… Yes, sir."

She was nothing short of a saint as she walked commandingly into the room, looking at the appalling display of violence on the floor of her boss' office, and at the man in the seat behind the desk, who seemed quite unimpressed.

"If you two idiots don't stop it right now, both Shikamaru and Sasuke will be fired!" the brunette roared over the top of their incessant shouting.

Ino and Sakura instantly stopped, with Ino snatching the envelope away, having won the tussle, and Sakura being powerless to get it back without endangering her life.

"S-Sorry, Mr. Hyuuga," Ino said, standing, brushing herself off and lowering her head to him in shame for the display beforehand. If she wanted to get a job as a lawyer for him later, then that was _not _the way to behave. Beside her, Sakura did the same thing, albeit she was still glaring at the blond for getting the envelope in the end.

Neji fixed them with a flat stare, finding a certain contented feeling while watching them squirm nervously under the high focus of his gaze. People often said that it almost seemed he was able to see _through_ people. It was what had made him such a good lawyer.

"Is everything okay now, sir?" Tenten asked, examining a nail. Neji gave his assistant a silent nod, and she grinned before leaving.

"You disappoint me. Both of you. I don't know where to begin in explaining how much you have both shamed yourselves. Have you no respect? In yourselves? Me? The company you work for?"

Ino felt like a kid at the principal's office.

Albeit, this principal was considerably better looking than both the one she had had in primary school _and_ the one in high school. Richer, too. And younger. With a nicer car. And wonderful hair….

"I'm sorry, sir," Sakura said softly, looking up at him apologetically. "I just wanted to help Mr. Uchiha with his work."

"I'm sorry too, Mr. Hyuuga…. I have vital information that Mr. Nara has found for the Sand Murder case, and I just wanted to give it to you as fast as possible."

Neji smirked slightly to himself. Ino was a born lawyer. He wasn't interested in hearing devotion from secretary to boss, but dedication to him and the company was always awarded. Oh, she looked sweet and innocent – when she wasn't attacking other people on the floor of his office – but she was dangerous. Very dangerous. A pretty face could get you places – especially in the information department.

He would know.

Lucky for Ino, he had had a soft spot for her ever since that work training camp that Hinata had organized. Back before she had known he was his boss, they had been split into teams for a game of hockey – to promote teamwork in a competitive environment – and her way of distracting him and his team while Shikamaru and Tenten worked around through the defences, was just to flirt outrageously. Winking… blowing kisses… _falling into him and making him catch her_….

He still remembered the look on her face when she found out that he was going to be her boss, and was, in fact, not just a look-alike to Neji Hyuuga, but Neji Hyuuga himself. For once, he had thanked Hinata and her 'pretend to be normal' scheme.

Still, no matter how cute he thought she was, Ino had to be punished. He had a murderous migraine now, and neither girl would be allowed to get away with it.

What to do though? It couldn't be too harsh, but he didn't want them let off lightly, either. In the police departments downstairs – or so he had _heard_ – they punished minor wrong-doers with parties that they weren't invited to….

…

Wait.

Parties!

It was brilliant! This way, he wouldn't have to organize _anything_, and their workload would be almost trebled! _They_ could arrange the stupid Christmas party. Booking entertainment, preparing food, making sure everyone knew about it…. They were all troubles that Neji Hyuuga did not want to deal with, and now, thanks to today, he would not have to.

"Listen, girls…. I know just what to do with you…."

**

* * *

**

We are strong! 

**No one can tell us we're wrong!

* * *

**

_Yep. Love is a battlefield. I had to do it at some point. Come on, admit it. You love Pat Benatar. I know you do. Yeah. Can't hide from Jessie, now, can you?_

_No!_

…

_Omg! I love sliding around on my wheely chair!_

…

_Man has his will, but woman has her way._

_Oh yeah. Oh. and you _wish _you had xmas invitations like mine._

_Reviews, please:3_


	7. Chapter 7

_Author's Note: Oh, and I am _back _after a great xmas with the other side of the family! Awe-some. Oh. And. Just in case she's being even more of a bitch than usual:_

_Lauren I hate you and I'm gonna kill you. WELL ME AND STEPH WILL WRITE THE ELF SUITS, WON'T WE? YEAH! Go die! Now review me nicely._

…

_I'm sorry you had to hear that._

_Pairings: InoxSaso (minor), InoxIta hints (hehe). Pretty nonexistent in this chapter, actually…_

**Some boys kiss me**

**Some boys hug me**

**I think they're okay…**

**Chapter… wow. That's a great question! I have no idea!**

"I can't believe I have to work with _you_," Ino spat, laying her head on her arms as she sat slumped over her desk. Across from her, Sakura raised her head and snarled before returning back to work. She, unlike Ino, had some sense of productivity in her.

No sense of fun though. No, not at all. She wasn't even responding to teasing…. When Ino got bored, she teased. When people didn't respond, it was as good as shooting her.

"You weren't my first choice either…"

Ino grinned, not bothering to hide the delight on her face as she got a reply. She was about to retort with some remark that was no doubt wonderful and witty all in one, but was silenced by someone else cutting over the top of her.

"I can't believe I was put in charge of both of you," Tenten sighed, rubbing exasperatedly at her forehead and leaning a hand on Ino's desk. She seemed quite content to let Sakura start planning things.

"Yeah…. Sorry about that…. Got carried away…."

The personal assistant offered her a dangerously cheerful smile. "Hey! I'm not the one who's going to suffer when my boss finds out that Neji's presenting the work to the Sabakus as his own, am I?"

Sakura visibly flinched, and Ino shuddered, grinding her forehead into her arms and gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Dammit…"

"Oh, it's okay," Tenten smiled, putting a hand mockingly on her shoulder. "I'm sure they'll _both_ forgive you when you force them along to a trivia night Christmas party!"

The brunette sniggered to herself as both women collapsed, sobbing onto their desks.

Ah, revenge was sweet.

--------------

_Three days later_

_------------_

"You want me to go to a Christmas party?"

Kakuzu stared at the blond girl across the counter, his eyes glazing over in what she assumed was a defense tactic.

See no evil.

"Well… Mr. Hyuuga does," she answered dryly. Personally, she loved Christmas time, but she wasn't too thrilled about the pressure she was under to organize something that Hinata Hyuuga herself had wanted, and make it into something wonderful, much-loved and _fabulous_.

"And you know Christmas is the best time of the year to make money, don't you?"

"Well yes, but -"

"Then you should know I can't possibly go."

Ino pouted at him, crossing her arms like a petulant child. It was about a week since she had been commissioned to run the party with Tenten and Sakura, and she had taken the invitation role under then impression that that would be easier than setting up the venue and arranging entertainment. What a painfully inconvenient thing this was proving to be though. Stupid Kakuzu, he was most definitely a life-ruiner.

"Fine," she sniffed. "Where is Sasori? He might like to come."

Kakuzu stared at her. "You can't take my staff, either."

"I heard my name?" Sasori said as he walked from the back of the shop, carrying a life-sized dummy wearing a dress she hadn't seen in the shop before. He set it up in the display window as she told him about Konoha's first Christmas party.

"I see…"

"Don't you dare," Kakuzu warned, pointing a threatening finger at the redhead and glaring solidly. "You know Christmas is the busiest time of year for us."

"I'm sure we could manage for just one day," Sasori said absently, fixing the flow of the dress Ino was currently admiring. As if he did whatever Kakuzu said, anyway….

He would have to report to the master about that.

"I've already declined."

"Aaw, Sasori, will you please come? _Please_? I want as many people as I can get!"

Oh dear. She had assorted to begging… Well. She was desperate. Besides, Sasori sort of liked the girl. Well… Not _liked_. Didn't _not_ like was more accurate. He hadn't gone out anywhere for ages, anyway.

"What sort of party is it?" he asked, turning to face her and crossing his arms. There was something about him that always seemed so relaxed. A quiet confidence that was unlike that of the brooding Uchiha, but was still just as powerful. He was not lost on Ino.

"It's dinner, a show, and then…. Eh…. Here's the bad part…." She took a deep breath, wincing as she said the last word. "… Trivia…."

"I love trivia," the tailor said simply, collecting his bright red invitation from the happy blond and meeting the eye of the fuming salesman coolly. "I'll come."

He smirked as he saw the responses on the card, and handed the 'I'll be there with bells on!' section back to her, picking up a pen from the counter and scrawling his name on the back.

"Great! Thank you, Sasori!" she squealed, hugging him. He was the first person outside the firm that had accepted the invitation to come. She had been through numerous amounts of Mr. Hyuuga's acquaintances, and none of them had really seemed like the festive type. It only occurred to her, when she had actually joined her hands around his waist, how inappropriate that probably was.

_Oh shit…_

Instead of moving off him – because she didn't want to seem flustered or embarrassed – she stayed wrapped around him, although completely tensed, with her eyes wider than they had ever been in her life.

Awkward.

Kakuzu stared at his tailor as the redhead carefully put a hand on her back, wiped the startled look off his face, and actually smiled. What was the world coming to?

The green-eyed salesman looked to the door as four regular customers entered, the one in front covered _completely_ in blue. He even had blue body art painted all over his skin. Kisame Hoshigaki, the photographer, was obviously going through a new colour obsession. Kakuzu only let him into his shop so that the flocks of expensive people that employed him could come too…. Oh, and because they _were _technically teammates. But no one knew that now, did they?

"Morning, Kakuzu. Sasori. Deida -"

"It isn't Deidara, dick," Hidan, the silver-haired model who had already made that mistake before snapped, intent on proving he could tell the difference between women and men. "That's…. Fuck me… what was her name?" Kisame frowned at Ino, who was still hugging Sasori. The tailor looked very amused, if slightly embarrassed.

Deidara shot Hidan a scathing look of disapproval, choosing to ignore the fact his photographer had mistaken a woman for him, even when he was only a foot away.

"You idiot…. Morning, Ino."

"Hey…" she said shakily. All eyes were on her as she still refrained from detaching herself from their custom tailor. Too bad for her, the 'if I don't move they won't see me' idea wasn't turning out too hot. She was thankful she was turned away from them, cheek on Sasori's chest, so they wouldn't see the bright red blush that had made its home on her face.

"Ino came bearing Christmas invitations," Sasori told them as he saw Itachi's observant eyes pick up the empty envelope he still had in his hand. "She was grateful that I was going to come."

Ino finally managed to make her arms move and let go of him. "Yeah. Sorry. I got a little carried away," she laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck.

"The fuck would we care?" Hidan asked, cocking an eyebrow and looking down on her. Deidara rolled his eyes at his back, and Itachi reached a pale hand to massage his temple.

"Hidan, please, watch your language around ladies," Kisame said sternly, giving him a down-the-nose look. Ino's gaze was to the floor, her face bright red in embarrassment and humiliation – something that seemed all too common around that particular group of men.

"Oh fuck off," he said, an incredulous tone betraying he didn't see anything wrong with his use of language. Ino knew she swore just as much as him, and it wasn't that that bothered her. He just seemed to have made it a point to put her on the spot. She almost felt like crying. Almost. No, instead she would most likely go running back to the office and cry to Shikamaru. Although he'd rarely spoken to her since the envelope incident, she was still determined that he had as good as admitted his undying adoration over the 'you're the only one I trust' thing.

"I'm sorry… Ino, was it? I apologise for him," Kisame said kindly, eyes crinkling in a smile. It was strange, that at that moment, she was feeling so thankful towards a tall man who had painted himself blue; but, here she was.

"You can't apologise for me! It's not like you own me or anything!" Hidan exploded. Kisame rounded on him, malice pouring forth from an almost shark-like grin. He was taller by about a head and a half than the model, and looked very, _very _threatening. It took a lot to scare Hidan, however, and the two men squared off against one another, pale violet eyes meeting white, until Kisame hissed:

"Listen. It's me who makes you look good."

…

Hidan was many things. However, stupid wasn't one of them. Kisame had full power over his shots – at least for the next two years in his contract – and he would have to do _anything_ the older man asked if he wanted to keep his job in modeling. If Kisame asked him to pose with nothing on but women's underwear and a pair of love-heart covered boxer shorts on his head in the fucking _snow_, then Hidan would have to do it. And the colour-obsessed photographer was like that. Sure, he _acted _nice and polite and gentlemanly, but he was a real bastard when he wanted.

The silver-haired man backed down, scowling and folding his arms over his chest.

"Now, what do you say?" Kisame prodded. The others smirked at their comrade's discomfort. Ino smiled weakly, sharing a quick look with Deidara, who seemed quite entertained.

"I'm sorry, alright? Fucking hell… I didn't give a shit anyway," he spat, stalking towards the very back of the shop as he busied himself looking for clothes.

"Sasori, attend to the moron," Kakuzu said tiredly. He had long since tired of Hidan's bratty acts. "What's their theme this time?" he asked Kisame, changing the subject.

The blue man grinned happily and flopped a huge file down on the counter, startling Ino with the loud noise it made. Sasori touched her shoulder gently before walking away towards Hidan, who Ino saw start to make a smart-ass comment before he was hit rather hard in the chest by a pair of shoes.

"This here, is every single Christmas cover edition that we've ever had," he explained, flipping through the pages and pointing out his favourites to the salesman, who was waiting to make a business opportunity out of what he considered unimportant detail. "But we're not sure what will do it for us this year. We've had firemen, life savers, waiters, dancers - of course, and soldiers, but now we need something else. Something that women are going to go mad over."

_Slaves! _thought Ino madly. _Ehe…_

"Then why are you asking me?" Kakuzu scathed, glaring up at the musing photographer.

"Ino, what sort of men do you like?" Deidara asked casually, leaning his head slightly to one side. Itachi smirked and looked at her coolly, while Kisame slapped himself in the blue forehead.

"Deidara, for a blond, you're actually not as dumb as you look," he smiled. Deidara and Ino shared a common scowl directed towards the tall man. Blonds weren't _all_ dumb…. Why did everyone always act so surprised?

"So, Ino?"

"I… I don't know," she frowned, still unsettled from Hidan's temper tantrum before. Truth be told, she just wanted to get out of there, not outline what label of men she found the most attractive.

"Don't get embarrassed or anything," Kisame told her, grinning again. "It's strictly business."

The usual confident Ino Yamanaka was feeling way out of her depth. She didn't like all these guys looking at her – at least, not when she wasn't in the control of the conversation. Right after being humiliated, she would have preferred to be able to go off and lick her wounds in some sheltered corner covered in darkness, not have everyone pretend as if nothing had happened and ask her questions so she'd have to stay.

"I don't know…."

"Is there someone you're dating right now?" Kisame pressed, picking up his folder and chewing on the tip of his pen, ready to make notes and sketches. "Come on, it'll help me out. Just tell me what sort of men you like."

The blond cursed as she felt herself turn bright red.

_Again_.

Everything seemed way too quiet. She raised her head, no longer examining the finer points of her shoes, to meet the calm stare of Sasori across the room, the sharp but sulky eyes of Hidan, the clever, calculating blue that was Deidara, and the smug 'I know exactly what kind of men you like' gaze of Itachi Uchiha.

It then occurred to her that she would make a lousy lawyer if she couldn't at least lie her way through a difficult situation and pretend she wasn't uncomfortable. Why not just tell them? She liked… Shikamaru, who wouldn't notice her, and no doubt hated her for not delivering that envelope. She liked men in expensive suits in the office, with large windows, a city view, and a _lot_ of money, all thanks to her boss.

"Men in suits," she smiled sheepishly, toying with the fabric of her skirt.

Kisame wrote it down. "With ties or without?"

"Loose ties…"

"Anything else?"

"Shirt sleeves rolled up."

With each step she inched a little closer to the door.

"What?"

"Just try it," she half-snapped, a little defensively. She could have said no clothes at all, couldn't she? If he asked her stupid opinion, he would have to accept it.

Kisame stared at her a second, a slight frown on his face, before shrugging and writing it down. "Sure. I can do that."

She looked around nervously to see Hidan eyeing his sleeves suspiciously, and even Itachi looking pensive as many of the males glanced at their wrists.

All was silent. Cheers, to another awkward moment.

Ino tried to draw the topic of conversation away from what men she liked.

"So… anyway…. Kakuzu? Are you sure you won't consider coming along?" she asked as she started to move even faster towards the door. Might as well try to regain control of the situation and do what she came to do.

He didn't answer straight away, and she took it as a no.

_Good! That's good! Just go! Git! Leave! Take the fuck off. _Bad _place._ Bad _Get _away _from the bad men. Door… door! So close!_

Everyone was silent as they stared at her.

"Right, well! I'll be going! Bye! I hope I've helped you, sir," she force-smiled to Kisame, slipping out the door and practically running across the road to the safety of the Konoha building, mentally slapping herself with each step she took.

The men left in the expensive boutique all watched her go, while at the same time noticing the reactions of their peers.

In the dangerous life they lead, they were all on edge, all acutely aware of things that could possibly be used against each other, fuels for the flames of their burning rivalry. Deidara in particular, who harboured a thorough hate for the elder Uchiha brother, noticed the almost relaxed state that Ino had created for Itachi, and narrowed his eyes.

If he could just get to her, he could finally beat that uptight asshole and blow his lacking appreciation for the less subtle types of murder to high fucking hell. Deidara, the bomber, wondered if the gunner knew exactly what he was thinking.

**If they can't give me what I want**

**Then I just walk away**

_Heh._ _Yeah. Had to do that one too._

_Well. I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas! And you know you're just itching to send me plenty of reviews, full of wonderful (if late) xmas cheer!_

_Yes?_

_Yes._

_Um._ _Quote… Quote…_

_Lol!_

_Our dog's pedigree is so outstanding, even if he could talk, he wouldn't talk to _you


	8. Chapter 8

_Author's Note: Now, first of all, I am appalled that I forgot to put the stupid separating lines in the last chapter, and yes, I have punished myself sufficiently with a massive xmas chocolate overload._

_It doesn't sound that bad?_

_Obviously _you _people don't chocolate binge! Well. I can see I'm outnumbered._

_Down to business:_

_Pairings: ShikaxIno, mostly. But implied ItaxIno, SasoxIno (I'm loving Sasori at the moment. Sorry), HidanxIno, KibaxIno, DeixIno._

_Warnings: Um. Shikamaru is getting a little angry… slightly OOC… but it doesn't show on the outside, so people's perception of him isn't really changed. I hope. But I reckon you'd be bugged too._

_Anyway, sorry! That was a ridiculously long author note, and now this chapter is 9 pages. I do apologise and –_

_I'll stop._

**

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**

Can you feel it crush you? 

**Does it seem to bring the worst in you out?

* * *

**

**Next Chapter! hip-hip hooray! Right? Riiiiiiiiiiight?**

"Good morning, Mr. Nara. Late for work again?"

"Yeah, Tenten…. Just don't tell Ino. Arguments this early in the morning are troublesome."

The personal assistant, who had set up camp on the eleventh floor away from her twelfth floor luxury to help the two secretaries with the Christmas party, smirked at him, amused at the thought of both the high boss Hyuuga _and_ his genius second in command being completely whipped by women who were ranked below them. Oh, Neji thought she didn't know, but she had realised long ago that she could ask him for _anything_, and she would get it.

"Does she ever really argue with you?"

Shikamaru thought for a minute, then decided answering and being proved wrong would really be too troublesome.

Then again, having one more woman to worry about – on top of Ino's blasted god-fucking-damned _police officer_ relationships and Sakura's spiteful attitude towards him ever since the Envelope Incident – proved to be even worse. He leant on Ino's vacant desk and sighed, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Not really. She usually does what I ask."

"You don't find that odd, at all?" Tenten prodded, deciding she would help the blond, who really, under all the conceited shallowness wasn't that bad at all. She could afford to be nice while Sakura was out fetching early-bird Sasuke his morning coffee. This way everyone would be happy.

"What?"

"Have you seen her listen to anyone else?"

"She listens to Neji," he answered, averting his eyes and _trying_ not to allow too much hope to get past his spiky, barbed-wire logic barriers.

Tenten shrugged, and decided to sub-divert the topic onto something else, seeings as though she had worked on nothing else for what felt like millennia.

"Are you taking her to the Christmas party?"

Shikamaru snorted, raising his eyes to stare at the roof, a yawn sliding effortlessly from his mouth. "I don't really do parties. That many people in a room, dancing and being social and such…. It's troublesome."

Ha. Imagine him at a big, loud, cheery group function, playing games and making small talk with idiots. Imagine him all dressed up.

"Well, _Ino_ does parties. She worked hard on this," the brunette told him, as he refused to look at her. "_Really_ hard. You should take her, I think."

"What? Why would she go with me?" he asked, snapping round to look her in the eye for the first time that morning.

"Why wouldn't she?"

He sighed, leaning his head tiredly to one side. "She's dating an officer already. He's probably already her plus one."

Tenten frowned, sitting back in her chair and putting a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Right. Him. Well, I haven't heard anything from him for ages, so -"

"Good morning, you two!" Lee exclaimed brightly, bounding towards them with a bouquet of flowers grasped in his arms. "How are my good friends doing?"

"We're just fine, Lee," Tenten smiled, sparing Shikamaru the trouble of speaking. "What have you got there?"

"Flowers, for Miss. Ino! Aren't they beautiful! They were just in the elevator! I think it must have been a _secret admirer_ from the lower floors! Oh, how youthful!"

He put them on the blond's desk before singing – and dancing - his goodbyes, and taking up his usual position near the elevator.

"Shikamaru…" the assistant winced. "Just because -"

But his face was icy, his teeth bared in almost a feral snarl as he glared poison daggers at the lovely display of flowers sitting anything-but-innocently on the desk. "I don't care," he spat hurtfully before stalking away angrily, fists clenched at his sides.

_Men…_

The personal assistant rubbed at an eye exasperatedly, and looked towards Sakura when she came back from her morning coffee run.

"Morning," she greeted, watching the rosette bustle around and try and brush herself up while still holding the cup in her hand. She gave a quick grunt and disappeared into her boss' office.

_Women…_

When Sakura resurfaced she shot the brunette a look before sitting down at her desk and picking through a schedule she had drawn up for the Christmas party. She seemed upset. Perhaps she had finally asked Sasuke to go with her? To Tenten, the situation was just _screaming _drama queen.

_Oo! Scandalous!_

"So what'd he say?" she asked somewhat carelessly, jabbing at the laptop she had taken up using during her stay on the eleventh floor.

"What do _you_ think?" Sakura spat, slamming a fist on her computer when it refused to check off a point from her other schedule. "God-dammit! I hate this stupid thing! I hate it!"

Tenten surveyed her glumly for a second, and decided that, in fact, she was quite bored. Neji had given her no extra work to do today as of yet, so she had to find some other way to entertain herself.

…

Stirring the waters, perhaps?

_Definitely_.

"Why did he say no? Doesn't like parties?"

It was a familiar tune for the men in her working life, after all: Neji was the biggest snob she had ever laid eyes upon, Shikamaru was the biggest _slob_ she had ever laid eyes upon, and Sasuke?

…

Sasuke ate babies.

…

Sakura doubled over, pulling at her hair with her hands as if she was forcing herself to spit out words that she never, ever wanted to say. Tenten became interested at the display of semi-masochism, and scooted her chair further into her desk, leaning her elbows on the surface.

"Oooh, what is it, Sakura? He already going with someone else?" Ino sniggered as she entered the freak-out zone and sat at her desk, waving at Tenten and being completely ignored.

_People…_

Sakura shrieked angrily and stood up, stomping down the path of desks and calling over her shoulder.

"As if you don't already know, Pig!"

Ino frowned. What?

"Are you going to the Christmas party with Sasuke?" Tenten asked incredulously. Ino raised her eyebrows, eyes widening.

"What? Not to my knowledge! No! I wouldn't go with _Sasuke_," she told her, putting a hand to her chest as if she had been shot. "No, I…. No." She shook her head, one more time good measure.

"Then what was she talking about?"

"I don't know! The wench is crazy!" Ino practically screamed, not seeming all too sane herself. "How would I know what runs through her head?"

"Okay, fine," Tenten sighed, rolling her eyes and putting her hands in the air in mock surrender. "Who are you going with?"

The blond shrugged. "I don't know. No one, I suppose, at the moment. I _was_ going to ask Shikama – woah. Are those for me?"

Genius as she was, she had only just noticed the bouquet on her desk.

Hey! She'd had priorities.

"What do you think, idiot?"

"Well who are they from?"

"That guy from the lower floors."

"Kiba?"

Ino smirked to herself. That was one man she had safely and securely on her side. Not that she really needed him anymore. Not after she would score a date with Shikamaru to the party!

…

Or is that being to needy? Wasn't she meant to make him just so jealous he burst out of his skin and confessed deep and undying love and adoration and proceeded to carry her away to the castle in the clouds he was always staring out at?

Did that mean if he asked her then she would have to say no?

Dammit.

She checked the card on the flowers, just to see what sort of charming, loyal message he wrote.

…

Wait.

_What?_

"You look as if you've been slapped by a fish. Or something twisted like that. Rotten shoe polish tin, maybe. Either way, you're not wearing the most attractive of faces right now," Tenten observed dryly. "What did Kiba write that was so weird? Wasn't something perverted, was it?" She left her desk quickly, knocking her leg on the corner while she did so, and hobbled over to Ino's side, peering over her shoulder at the card nestled within the flowers.

"No, it's -"

"Who's _Sasori_? Why is he sending you -"

Ino stood up, frowning upon the impressive floral arrangement with utter confusion.

"I -"

"Wait. Isn't he the tailor across the road? The one with red hair?" Tenten buzzed, staring at the blond secretary with something between amazement and judgmental disapproval. "Oooh, Ino's been busy," she taunted.

"Nah…" the woman replied, still staring at the flowers. "I think it's just to say thank you…. It's not anything like that… I don't think…."

"You should go tell Shikamaru, then," the assistant told her matter-of-factly, nodding her head like the wise woman she was. "He wasn't too impressed with those this morning."

Tenten frowned at the difference in Ino's all around tone and body language. She completely brightened, barely holding back a squeal and moving her hands in a flurry not unlike the style in Wallace and Grommet.

_He noticed! Thank you _so much, _Sasori!_

"Okay! I'll do that now! Thanks for the heads up, Tenten!" she exclaimed brightly, practically bouncing towards her boss' office.

"Wait!"

The call stopped her in her tracks, and, now uncertain, Ino turned to face her helpful ally.

"What is it?"

"He won't be very happy with you. Don't get disheartened," the brunette advised, sighing. "_Make_ him answer you. _Make_ him talk."

"Yeah, will do!"

Ino grabbed the bouquet and trotted towards Shikamaru's office door, opening it while trying to keep some sense of dignity about her.

"Good morning, Mr. Nara!" she exclaimed brightly. The look he gave her was as good as a slap across the face. He seemed so _angry_, and for a moment she felt like the situation was beyond unsalvageable. This was so much easier when she was dealing with bastards like Sasuke in high school. She didn't need to worry about being rejected by him. She didn't particularly care that much.

Did that mean she felt something stronger for Shikamaru, then?

"What do you want, Ino?" the lawyer said irately after glaring and seeing she wasn't going to leave unless she got some kind of verbal response.

_Oh, God! He hates me! Don't hate me, please!_

"Oh, nothing! Just to see how you were this morning, and apologise for coming late. I got held up in traffic this morning and -"

"Whatever."

The response was short, sharp, and all around nasty. The drama queen living not-so-deep inside her screamed for her to make a scene, to sob and cry and lay a nice, heavy guilt trip on him.

But, alas.

"Oh, sir! Don't be like that! Look! You can have these flowers I was given this morning! I think your office needs some colour among all the papers and -"

_Bitch._

"How can I work with stupid things like flowers on my desk? It's troublesome to work around things like that," he said in a monotone, lowering his head to scribble some lines of writing on a document after staring angrily at the array of perfumed colour grasped tightly in Ino's hands. She was teasing him, mocking him.

It would have been far less troublesome to confess everything ages ago.

Then again, the awkwardness and all around depression that would come with certain rejection was also a troublesome factor.

…

Troublesome.

"But Mr. Naaaaaaraaaaaa," she whined, pouting at him and moving closer to the desk. "They're just _flowers_. Sasori from across the road at the local boutique sent them to me to say thanks for inviting him to the Christmas party! I think you need them more than I do. If its one thing I've got, its enough bright colours, don't you think?"

The pen froze in the lazy lawyer's hand, and his breath hitched. Sasori? He knew Sasori. He made some of his suits. The redhead _did_ seem the kind that would send thoughtful gifts like flowers as thanks…. Flowers didn't necessarily mean something romantic, right? No…. Girls like colours and things like that, it was a logical thing for a show of gratitude.

Suddenly, he was feeling a hell of a lot happier.

"Are you going to the party with him, then?" Shikamaru asked, allowing the slightest of the slightest, softest smiles imaginable. A wave of relief flooded over her as she noticed the change in his attitude.

"No, I won't be his plus one," she told him eagerly, biting her lip.

"Well…."

He cursed himself as he blushed, thinking that by now he should have outgrown that stupid, troublesome habit. Meanwhile, Ino was so close to screaming with excitement she was kneading her left palm with her right hand and tapping her foot on the ground.

"Would you like to go with -"

"Miyss Inooooooo!" Lee cooed, bursting through the door with more flowers than she had ever seen at any point in her life balanced in his mouth, on his shoulders and in his arms. "Lyook at all thye fyowers!" he said happily around a mouthful of green, thorny stems. Ino froze in place, feeling her eyes sting with frustrated, troublesome tears. Shikamaru clenched the pen in his hand so hard that blue ink started to run down his fingers.

"Lee, how about you -"

_It was too good to be true, wasn't it, Nara? Why'd you even think you had a chance?_

"Well. Someone's been busy…. Read the cards, why don't you, Ino?" Shikamaru said softly. His words challenged her, and upset her already fragile emotive state even more. He made her feel like you did when you disappointed a parent or a teacher you liked, or a close friend. Not _made angry_. Disappointed. Not with shouting and yelling and screaming, but with calm, hurt words.

"No, I think I can do that somewhere else," she said, voice cracking _just a bit_ as she took a stand despite the utter shit she felt she was in.

"Ino. Read the cards," he said once again. She denied his request another time, shaking her head stubbornly and crossing her arms.

In the end, Shikamaru got up himself and made his way to a bemused Lee, taking bouquet by bouquet away from the security guard and reading the cards himself.

"Deidara. Kiba. Hidan…. Itachi? Ino, what the hell have you been doing?" he shot at her, shoving the flowers in her face. To tell the honest to God truth, Ino was completely surprised herself. What were the three models doing sending her flowers? Especially after the obvious display of dislike from Hidan a couple of days earlier.

"Nothing! I… These are just guys I know!" she shouted defensively, completely aware of how things were spiraling out of control. "I don't know why they're -"

"Whatever," he snapped, throwing the daffodils from Deidara to the ground and storming off out the door. Ino looked at the broken flowers on the ground and knelt to pick them up, tears now forming small rivers down her face. She tried her best not to let Lee see her upset, but it was hard.

"Miss Ino?" he asked cautiously, bending down to help clear the flowers. She slapped his hands away as he reached for the same crushed daffodil. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, Lee," she choked angrily. "I'm fan-fucking-tastic."

He was shoved backwards, losing balance as she pushed him and rose to her feet, following her boss' lead.

**

* * *

**

Do they complicate you? 

**Because they make you feel like this?**

**Of all the colours shine**

**This is surely not your best

* * *

**

_Colors, by Crossfade –loves Crossfade-_

_Onoes. Shikamaru-kun has gotten jealous. Damn it is hard to write this without putting the Japanese suffixes at the end of some of their names. It's like instinct and then its like shit no. Oh crap. I also hate their first and last names being switched around to suit the western theme. It sort of bugs me. But its necessary._

_So what will happen at the xmas party!_

_Lots and lots of drama, that's what. Ahahahahaha!_

_Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence._

_Now, my dears. Care to flood my inbox?_

_Happy New Year! (even though its late. I do apologise. I'll just get in my TARDIS and go back and greet you better)_

_-loves Doctor-_

_omg I'm so sorry! I posted this and took it down because I forgot to add the stupid lines AGAIN! AFTER APOLOGISING FOR THEM EARLIER! -screams and takes Hidan on a leash out of her cupboard to sooth self down-_


	9. Chapter 9

_Author's Note: Um. Nothing much to say, really… which yes, I know is unusual for me. I suppose I could remind you to hit me with as many reviews as is physically possible. All you bad, bad people that are reading and not commenting, I really don't know _how _you live with yourself._

_Hmph. Got the stupid lines of bastardness right this time, didnt I?_

_Pairings: SasuxIno, implied ShikaxIno, ShikaxTema, NaruxHina_

…

_Enjoy…_

**

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**

Yeah, well you know, 

**I'm really okay…**

**The gun in my hand**

**Will tell you the same**

* * *

**Party!**

_I can't _believe _him! I can't! What an asshole! I don't know why I ever lo- … _liked _him in the first place! How could he do this? He's the biggest - …I've never met such an… an… an… _asshole_! And I dated Sasuke Uchiha for two and a half years!_

Ino gave said sombre man a sidelong glanced and moved her seat closer to him, twining her arm around his and leaning her head on his shoulder. She shot Shikamaru, who sat calmly sipping wine – although the party hadn't even started yet – a dirty look, and smiled at her date when he looked down on her.

"You're affectionate," he observed. Used to the attitude, she took it all in her stride, batting her lashes and grinning.

"Only because I know you love it so much," she simpered, hugging him tighter. Sasuke smirked, raising an eyebrow towards Shikamaru, who still had his head deep in his wine glass. He lifted a lip slightly and snarled back through the bottom of the glass.

Unfortunately, Ino was too preoccupied with the arrival of Sakura to really see any of this. Ino was in red and white, small bauble-like earrings hanging from her ears, red bracelets around her wrists, and a silver necklace around her neck, and Sakura was themed much the same. Tenten, who had decided to be productive and chase after Neji to make sure he actually _came_, continued the idea on as well, though the extent of her real decoration was a small, pretty Christmas tree clip in her dark hair, and Ino had only seen her briefly as of yet. Sakura saw her table – which was currently only occupied by three other people (guess who) and headed reluctantly towards them. Sasuke, the sweet thing that he was, ignored her completely.

Now, if Sakura had meant just a little more to Ino, then she would not have accepted – sought out – Sasuke for her date. She could have gone alone, she could have gone with any number of people – Santa knew she had been just a _teensy_ bit bad this month – but she thought that the handsome Uchiha would be the best candidate to piss off her stupid, stubborn, _asshole_ of a boss.

Plus. They looked good together, and _everyone_ knew it.

Now imagine her surprise when he tells a smug Ino and Sasuke that he had indeed found himself a date for the stupid thing he was being forced to go to, and that she was blond, rich, powerful, influential, and the best customer they had. No prizes for guessing who that was.

_Grr_…

Ino was glad Temari hadn't turned up with him. Otherwise she would not have any time to adjust to the fact…

And she would get jealous.

Very jealous.

…

Not that she wasn't already.

But this way she could think of a hundred smarmy replies to a hundred innocent questions and/or statements, and still come off feeling that she was the better woman, instead of spitting her wine out in surprise and having it land all over everyone at the table when the heiress managed to show up without giving Ino any preparation time.

_Come to think of it… Why isn't she here already?_

It occurred to her that she could actually just ask her stupid boss that question – but such an idea was for people whose sense outweighed pride. If she wanted to keep up her 'better-than-you' act, then she couldn't ask him _questions_! That would imply that she didn't already know something, which would mean _he_ was the better person.

Which, obviously, wouldn't work for her.

So, she decided to just lavish her complete and undivided attention on Sasuke!

"Would you like a drink, Sasuke?" she asked sweetly, noticing with only a little bit of internal conflict when Sakura's brave face slipped. "I know _technically _the party hasn't started yet, but while we're waiting around…"

"Mmm, sure. Thanks, Ino."

Shikamaru shot him a look. _There's_ _probably other things you want to do with her while waiting around. I'm not letting you two out of my sight._

Ino got up and left with a delighted smile, bouncing away to the kitchens.

-----------

"So, Nara. You actually got a date?" Sasuke asked nonchalantly as he sat back in his chair, examining a perfect fingernail. "Where is she then?"

Sakura seemed to be in pain at the sound of his voice. First he went to this thing _she_ had organized, with _another_ girl – who happened to be his rival's secretary and _her_ rival as well – then, as soon as the whore had departed, he started talking about yet _another _blond!

_Still. I might be able to put a stick in the works somehow. Or at least listen to see how their relationships are between each other._

Shikamaru shrugged off Sasuke's question with a well-practiced twitch of his shoulders, and moved to take another sip of wine. Where had he gotten that anyway? Nothing had been served yet! Their battle continued silently, however, as each man proceeded to try and out-glare the other.

_Great! Now something happen!_

…

_Anything?_

…

After five minutes Sakura had gotten bored. If they weren't going to talk to her then she would go and make herself useful somewhere else. She _was_ meant to be greeting people for the party anyway.

The rosette left the two feuding men with a sigh and strode towards the door, waiting for all the guests who would come soon and fill up all the tables they had booked. She grinned at the thought of her hard work paying off as the guests ate, drank, and listened to the expert pianist she had commissioned.

She wasn't there long before many people started turning up. Ever the gracious host, she led each and every one to their designated seats, until she was greeted by a pair she found most unusual.

"G-Good evening, Sakura," the Hyuuga heiress greeted kindly. "Y-You look v-very nice tonight."

Sakura flushed, amazed at the compliment extended to her by a woman wearing highest-quality diamonds and carrying a small handbag that cost about three thousand dollars. Hinata always looked beautiful, although she didn't need expensive clothes to do it.

"Hey! Miss Hyuuga tells me you and a couple of others put all this together!" a tall blond next to her grinned enthusiastically. Sakura's impressed moment dropped as she glared dully at the boy she had gone to high school with, who she had desperately hoped never to see again.

_What is he doing with Miss Hyuuga anyway? Surely someone like him is no good for a real… lady like her. Naruto's too… urgh. He's too much like _Naruto _to do anyone any good._

"Yes. Tenten, Ino and I arranged tonight, with hopes it suits you, Miss Hyuuga," Sakura smiled, mostly ignoring the loud policeman at her side. "If you'll let me show you to your seat – that is, if you don't mind sharing a table with me and some of the others, that is."

Hinata blushed slightly and looked to Naruto, who was still grinning outrageously, not at all put off about how Sakura was treating him. He was waiting for the rosette to take the heiress away.

"I- I was actually thinking that m-maybe I would be a-able to change tables," she said softly, playing with her fingers slightly and looking at her shoes. "N-Naruto says he n-needs someone g-good at t-trivia and I -"

"Nah, Miss Hyuuga it's okay," he smiled, grabbing her hand confidently. "My table's doomed to loose anyway, what with all the lawyers being on the other tables. Us coppers don't stand a chance. I wouldn't want you losing just on my account. You belong on a winning team, Miss Hyuuga!"

Hinata flinched and nodded her head slightly, refusing to look the ever-smiling man in the eyes. "O-Okay, then -" She tried to tug her hand away from his.

"Nonsense, Naruto," Sakura scowled, completely missing that Hinata had tried to speak. "You can't refuse her! Don't be so ungentlemanly! We'll just do a swap, that's all! We'll figure it out later; right now I'll show you two to the table."

Naruto rubbed at his stomach, laughing as it growled. "Actually, Sakura, I was hoping we could get something to eat first. I'm sort of hungry…"

"What? You want to sit there and stuff yourself while in the presence of -"

Sakura only then realised how much of an idiot she was making out of herself. Lecturing Naruto on how to treat Hinata when she was right there in front of them was no smooth move. Nope, not at all. It wasn't as if the heiress looked like she was offended by him or anything….

_Sakura._ _You. Are. A. Moron. Just let them go. Let the poor things leave!_

She smiled bashfully. If she had been an anime character she would have been covered in sweatdrops.

"Okay, I'll take you to your tables and give you both some menus."

---------

"Oi! What're you doing in the kitchen?"

Ino flinched as she tried to make away with a bottle of wine and got caught red handed. She readied herself for her big, bright, innocent smile and…

Died.

Now way! It was that guy in the elevator from when she and Kiba –

"What're you doing?" the large man repeated, slapping a large saucepan in his hand. "Food isn't being served until the party starts. By my watch that's about ten minutes away."

He recognised her, she could tell. But he wasn't as scared as perhaps he should have been.

Not that Ino was going to pick a fight when all the evidence was stacked against her and he was on his own turf of course, but it was safer for everyone to be cautious when handling the blond woman.

"But this is _my_ party, and Sasuke wanted a drink," she frowned, unable to think of anything to say other than what was running through her mind besides _oh shit he's gonna kill me_.

"_Your _party? Miss Haruno hired me to cook especially for this get-together. She was working under the legendary Miss Hyuuga's influence, and has been planning this for a long time! She wanted the best chef in all the world to cook for her! And so she has him!" The tubby chef wove the saucepan around and struck a pose, which contrasting sharply with her memories of a shy man that she had held before. "This is my kitchen, and it is where I, Akimichi Chouji, reign supreme! Now out, out before I call Miss Haruno!"

Ino jumped and left post-haste, still conveniently with the bottle of wine in her hand. Chouji, huh? Well, Sakura was definitely overdue for an interesting chat.

First, though, she had to tend adoringly to her pretty date.

She walked with as much hip-swinging as she could manage without looking like she was shit-faced towards her table, and placed the bottle of alcohol on the table in front of Sasuke, leaning over him and wrapping her arms loosely about his neck. Black hair tickled her chin as she rested her head on his, shooting a snarl towards Shikamaru.

_Dammit… I forgot how comfy you were you seductive bastard…_

_Forgot how those shoulders felt too…_

_Uh – no._ _Wait!_

…

_Ew. Gross. Sasuke._

_That's better._

"There we go," she grinned down at him. "Who's amazing?"

She pulled back slightly as he lifted his chin and caught her in a quick, light kiss.

"You're amazing," he replied smugly, a familiar smirk twisting across his face. Ino was surprised, to say the least, that he had actually said more than just his usual 'hn' when she gave him an opening for a compliment. She raised her eyes to meet Shikamaru's, and was thoroughly satisfied with what she saw.

_Aw, thanks Sasuke!_

"Hey, I gotta go," she told him, resting her cheek in his hair for a second before unwrapping her arms. "I need to speak to Sakura about something, okay? Don't worry. I'll hurry back," she assured him, even though he was more preoccupied with shooting Shikamaru a 'don't-you-wish-you-were-me-right-now' look.

"Hn…"

-----------

"Oh? Oh! Miss Sabaku!" Sakura greeted, somewhat amazed by the powerful presence that Temari carried about her. "Good to see you! I'm so glad you could make it!"

Temari nodded curtly, cocking her head towards the two men that accompanied her before crossing her arms and shifting weight so that she looked more casual, even in the formal dress she was wearing.

"This is Kankurou, my eldest brother, and my youngest, Gaara," she introduced. Sakura smiled somewhat nervously at both men – especially the redhead. He was, after all, currently being tried for murder….

Many murders.

Involving live burials in the desert…

And lots of –

"I wanted for him to have a good Christmas… you know…" Temari told her softly.

Kankurou remarked to his brother about the piano that sat in the centre, separated from the tables by a small stage, but the young man only glowered at the instrument, and lifted his lip at his brother's attempts.

"…If there was a chance his next one was going to be spent in a cell…."

Sakura's eyes softened, and she nodded solemnly. "I understand…. Alright!" she burst, suddenly behaving much happier, "I'll show you to where you'll be sitting for tonight! Of course at the table with everyone important there – Mr. Hyuuga, Mr. Nara and Mr. Uchiha will all be there. Mr. Hyuuga just needs to try and tear himself away from the office, and he'll be right with us," she smiled as she led them towards the table.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, by the way. Mr. Uchiha's secretary. Nice to meet -"

"Hey! Billboard! What's the deal with -"

Ino broke off, eyes wide, as she looked into the glowering face of Gaara Sabaku. She was so close she could tell each strand of dark red hair apart from the others that fell across his face. She hadn't meant to get this close! It was a combination of nasty high heels and Sakura's stupid dodging.

What a cow!

Behaving like a somewhat sensible person, Ino took a step back and calmly excused herself before stating her name and occupation, as well as how she hoped they would enjoy the little holiday function she had helped put together. She decided that out of the lot she definitely liked Kankurou the best. He was much friendlier than the others – by _far_. At least he smiled and laughed – whether with her or at her she was unsure of, but still…. Gaara just stared and stared and stared and she could tell he was imagining burying her under tons of sand after slashing the living daylights out of her, and _Temari…_

Well. She wasn't even going to try.

Ino saw that Sakura was giving her a look that ensured her full cooperation when dealing with what the blond had been about to berate her about, as long as she acted normal around the three Sabaku siblings.

She wasn't disappointed.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Sakura," she said, nodding politely. "And you too, Miss and Sirs. Don't let my foolishness ruin your evening, please. Dinner will be served in about five minutes. There are just a few more guests to great, and the night will be underway." She left walking with a straight back, arms stiff by her sides…

Feeling like a fucking moron.

It was a lie. There was no one else to greet that she could really think of. In her travels through the dining room she had even crossed past with Kiba – an incident only kept under control because of the presence of Hinata Hyuuga – and supposed that Sasori had already arrived as well. So she would stand at the door looking like a stupid idiot, while all the food was served and people started to have a good time. She almost wished a bunch of gate crashers would turn up, as long as she didn't have to go back empty-handed.

…

Six minutes, forty-one seconds

…

Nothing…

…

Nine minutes, thirteen seconds…

…

Nothing…

…

Eleven minutes, twenty four seconds

…

…

…

And then:

"Fucking hell! I'm not fucking lost! Seriously, everyone knows I'm the fucking smartest here."

_Oh shit._

"Right. Then how do you explain the current absence of people?"

_I know those voices…_

"They're stairs, yeah? You know them? When you're late for somewhere they lead to, there's very rarely anyone on them."

_No, please not you guys… Not tonight… Not all of you! What? I only gave the invitation to Sasori, and took the rest ba-_

_No I didn't! I left the spares there!_

"Don't be such a smart-ass. You're still just a baby, Deidara."

_Oh no, oh no, oh no!_

"Oh? So what? I do what you say, yeah? What are you like my master or something? What do you have that qualifies for that position? You have no power over me. You know that, yeah?"

_What should I do? Run? Turn them away?_

"I dress you for a start."

_But I can't do that! And they'd come in on their own accord!_

"You're giving me a headache…."

_Oh no. Not Itachi. Not him too. Not with Sasuke…._

**

* * *

**

It's coz I got a bad habit 

**And it aint goin' away  
**

**

* * *

**

_Hn_… _I apologise, but don't expect such regular updates from now on… I'm sort of obsessed with… -reverent tone and sparkling eyes- Air Gear… More specifically, 3 Spitfire 3_

_Can't help myself._ _You understand… right?_

_The road to truth is long and hard… and the entire way is lined with annoying bastards. Like me and the counting of the minutes just a moment ago..._

_I needed to fill up space..._


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's Note: Well hi! I haven't seen you guys for a while, have I? I apologise, but can really give no reason other than that I am a… lazy, non-committal bitch._

_Heh._

_Anyway, but I was really, REALLY bored this weekend, and didn't want to do my maths assignments (maths assignment. I know. –rolls eyes-) so I sort of just hijacked my mums laptop and started typing. Woo!_

_Um… by the way…_ _I know it wont really have the same effect with this being set in a Christmas Party around February… but try and get back into the spirit, yeah? And look! No song at the start! That's okay. Song comes later. I have some sort of songfic chapter obsession. Sor-ry!_

_Oh. Btw. The legal drinking age in Australia is 18. So just… keep that in mind for later, yeah?_

* * *

**Chapter… the next one (10?)** **Can't remember :D**

_Oh God. How did it get to this?_

The thought, repeating over and over inside her head like a broken record, had a justifiable existence. Who had she killed in a past life to have this happen to her? She held Sasuke's left hand tightly in her grasp, and squeezed it every so often in an effort to let him know that he could relax, that just because Itachi had taken Tenten's seat on the other side of her, it didn't mean anything was going to happen, that he would be fine, that everything would be okay... and… it wouldn't be…

… Like last time.

But last time had been an accident. She was only seventeen, and Itachi was older and could definitely hold his alcohol better than anyone else at the party. It was dark, she was confused, and they looked an awful lot alike. He kissed her. She thought it was her boyfriend and kissed back. And that's the story. How simple it seemed now, looking back on it, when in reality it had been weeks of crying, of begging for forgiveness, of not being welcomed into the Uchiha household by the young man she would have given almost anything for, of seeing the pain on his face every time he looked at her. Of how she had gotten fed up with trying to make it work, when he did nothing but try his best to ignore her. Of the months they stayed furious at each other, until the day they graduated. She left him with a firm hug and a kiss on the cheek, and didn't see him until five years later.

Who knew?

"Ino!"

The sharp, irritated voice belonged to Sakura, who did her quite a disservice by waking her up from her dream state. The rosette was soft red with an angry flush, glaring at Sasuke's hand gripped in Ino's while she pointed to the waiter who was politely waiting for Ino to make her order.

"Uhh…"

"She'll have what I'm having," Itachi said smoothly, folding his menu and placing down on the table in front of him. "You've always been partial to my tastes…. Haven't you, Ino?"

Ino would have loved, for at that moment, to just be murdered. Taken down. Shot. Stabbed. Bombed. Strangled. Drowned. Garroted! Anything! As long as she didn't have to deal with the heavy-set awkwardness that settled over the whole table. She raised her eyes, barely breathing and all too aware of Sasuke's nails digging ferociously into her hand, to meet the critical stare of her boss, and immediately wished she hadn't. Ino looked down at the table and wondered what she would do.

"Madam?" the waiter prompted, trying to confirm Itachi's order.

"Yes…. That'll be fine…."

Eating was the _last_ thing on her mind.

She shot Itachi a fierce glance, wondering how he could sit so easily, with a small, contented smile gracing his face, when he had caused such a commotion. He met her eye coolly, and opened his mouth to say something else, when –

"Where's Tenten?"

Sakura's voice was like a lighthouse in the storm. Ino chose to strategically ignore the elder Uchiha brother and answer her as if nothing had happened.

"She went chasing after Mr. Hyuuga," she told the rosette, who was looking at her with a 'what the hell' look all over her face. Ino chose Deidara at random, who was sitting to the left of Temari, and addressed the next sentence to him. "He doesn't usually come out and be social like this too often, and is so dedicated to his work he often loses track of time. Tenten's his assistant. She usually keeps him in check."

Most of her audience nodded their understanding, but a few did not. Gaara Sabaku did nothing but stare – he seemed to never be doing anything else – and Shikamaru was draining his wine glass at an alarming rate. Occasionally his eyes would move from Itachi to Ino to Sasuke, and then he'd frown, before realising that most of the others who had sent her flowers were here as well.

Speaking of the two higher-ups, boss and assistant walked through the door at that precise moment, Neji frowning when he noticed Hinata was at a table with police officers, and he didn't know some of the people personally on his table. There was also only one seat left, which made things all the more annoying. Tenten smiled and said something that Ino couldn't make out, and she stood to go and meet the two when they started over. Sasuke, after some insistent tugging, came after her.

They met in the middle of the room, their conversation kept from others by the buzz of speech circling them. Ino smiled at Neji with relief, as he deadpanned back.

"What the hell is going on, Ino Yamanaka? Why is Hinata sitting with those middle-class idiots? Who's sitting at my table? You gave me a list of the table arrangements, and I expected it had all been worked out. What went wrong?"

This was so much easier than being brought between two Uchihas. She could answer his question without too much hassle. Sasuke was watching her carefully as she started to speak. No doubt he was wandering why in God's name she had let Itachi join the table in the first place.

Well, it wasn't as if that had been her main intention. It wasn't like that. She had done her best to politely get him to stay the hell away.

'_I'm sorry, Itachi. That's seat's reserved for someone else.'_

'_There are spare chairs. They can pull up another one.'_

'_It's just not good to turn up like this, you guys. I wish you'd called and said you were coming.'_

'_We sent you flowers. Didn't you get them?'_

Ino explained the situation, and eventually Sasuke stopped looking at her, instead defiantly meeting Tenten's curious eye. He lifted his lip slightly, and forced himself to relax a little. Ino moved closer to him, so that her temple touched his shoulder.

Neji's chest heaved as he sighed grandly, placing a pale thumb and forefiner on the bridge of his nose in inconvenient exasperation. "Alright. Fine. I know most of them anyway. Their faces are all over every magazine in the world. It may pay off to actually get to know them. There's a lot of room for legal cases in the modeling world."

He strode past Ino and towards the table. Tenten let out a breath and smiled.

"You are so lucky you got off with that. He wasn't happy about coming here at all. He kept making excuses, and got so angry when I nagged him that he actually threatened to cut my pay check." The assistant crossed her arms and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "Uptight bastard. He should know by now not to mess with my paycheck. I told him I'd call High Hyuuga Hiashi and tell him that he was neglecting his socialistic duties." She paused to smirk, and Ino returned it. "Fastest I've ever seen him move."

_Heh… High Hyuuga Hiashi…_

"You're a genius."

"I know. I'm also starving. Has the food come yet?" The brunette looked around at the tables, checking for meals and only seeing wine. She cocked an eyebrow and grinned lopsidedly.

_That might just be enough._

"Oi! Oi! Sasuke, you bastard! Imagine seeing you here!" Naruto grinned as he strode towards them. Ino was glad for the blond distraction. Suddenly, Sasuke's attention was focused completely on Naruto. Now he seemed different. More… positive, somehow. But still annoyed. Still very annoyed.

"I just can't image what amazing luck I have. Running into you of all people after all this time," the lawyer replied, voice completely dull. Naruto rolled his eyes, and Ino and Tenten watched in amusement as Sasuke was forced into an argument with no structured rules like there were in the courtroom. They found out he wasn't so good in 'anything goes' arguments. He was getting frustrated at Naruto's senseless points and his stupid answers that were impossible to return. When the blond copper thought that he had enraged Sasuke enough, he started to laugh loudly, and grabbed the shoulder of his suit.

"Don't touch what you can't afford, loser," Sasuke scowled. Naruto blinked irately, and started to drag him back towards his table to introduce him to all his other friends. Tenten and Ino were left alone.

"Hey… Tenten…. Do you know what's up with… with Shikamaru and Temari? I didn't know they were even together, and then he turns up with her at this party?"

The assistant stopped eyeing the red wine on the nearest table and crossed her arms, tilted her head to one side thoughtfully, making her Christmas tree hairclip flash in the lights.

"I don't know…. I'm not even sure how they met each other – well… actually that would probably be through her brother's case…. But I didn't think they had any contact outside of case meetings. What _might_ of happened though, is that he needed a date, and she was just there. He had a lot of leverage over her in the first place, I suppose. Everyone knows the better friends you are with someone the more you can get out of them. She's no stranger to making deals. Not what you know but who you know and all that…."

"But I thought he hated parties… Why even bother to come?"

Tenten shrugged at the helpless look on her colleague's face. "I just said, didn't I?" The brunette sighed and rolled her eyes. "Okay. That's not what you wanted to hear, is it?"

"Not really…."

"Well, the day you got the… flowers… he was almost convinced he was going to ask you himself. It was just bad timing on Sasori's part. Maybe, _maybe_, he's trying to make you jealous."

"You think?"

Tenten shrugged again. "Look, Ino…. Why not… just…. Just enjoy yourself here. Go with Sasuke. He's your date, and as much of a _dick_ that he is, I think you might have already experienced how messy something like this could guess. God knows you watch enough stupid TV. He doesn't deserve to be fooled around like this, so after tonight… maybe you should just…."

Ino knew where she was going, but she was scared that if she just said no to Sasuke, that he would just ignore her around the office. She didn't want it to be like last time, when they were angry at each other. She had been his friend for so long, she couldn't help but care for him. She had seen his best and worst moments through the whole of primary and high school, she had held his hand at the funeral of his parents, she had done her best to protect him from the stares and whispers about his past.

She knew she treated him casually, like she didn't really care about him at all. She loved to embarrass him, to see him turn red. She used to love hugging him in public places…. Ino missed that. Of course, now that he was a high class lawyer she wouldn't do things like that… not in the workplace…. But she liked knowing she was the only person that _could_.

Yes. She would have to come clean and tell him that, as angry as she was with the genius lawyer right now, it was still Shikamaru that she wanted.

"Alright," Tenten said, stretching her back tiredly. "I'll head back. You can go get him now."

------------------

Ino practically had to drag Sasuke back to the table, following Tenten's direct path. Neji had taken his intended seat next to Itachi, and seeing the two leftover seats together, Tenten figured out that that was where Ino and Sasuke had been before. She frowned at the lack of spots open.

"It's okay, Tenten. Maybe Sasuke and I can go to a different table. There are some people that didn't turn up tonight."

Itachi looked at her dully, Deidara pouted, Gaara stared, Kankurou raised his eyebrows, Shikamaru glared at Sasuke, Temari glared at Shikamaru, Sakura was looking hopelessly at her wine glass, and Hidan was just getting pissed off with all of the tiptoeing. Sasori stood up.

"Don't do that, Ino," he smiled, caramel eyes blinking slowly, in an almost catlike show of comfortable ease. "Miss Haruno here was just telling me that the entertainment for tonight should have started by now. And I was planning on offering her my services."

"I didn't know you could play the piano," Ino told him, eyes brightening. Sasori was seeming very talented right now.

"Yeah, you and me both, woman," Deidara muttered under his breath. The redheaded tailor turned enough so that he could see the blond out of the corner of his eye, and hissed quietly so that no one else could hear, "It would be an over exaggeration to say you know _anything_ about me.

"In that case," Tenten grinned, "everything's fine - … until of course you come back."

Sasori waved it away. "It's fine. You can have my food if you want, too," he smiled. "Just make sure you save some for me."

He dipped his head to Ino before walking past and climbing the stairs to the small stage and the shiny, black, grand piano. Tenten, Sasuke and Ino took their seats, the blond and her date having to turn their chairs completely around so that they could see him as he lifted the piano lid and flexed his fingers. People from the other tables had noticed that he was going to play for them, and quietened down. Waiters watched from the door of the kitchen, holding platters ready to bring out, but not wanting to disturb the handsome redhead who had taken his place on the piano stool.

Chef Chouji, who had left his kitchen only to berate the waiters for not moving saw that the show was about to begin, regardless of the news he had been given by his employer that said the pianist they had hired was not going to turn up. He grinned and pushed past his waiters, moving unnoticed to the lights, shutting off all but the spotlight on the stage. Sasori, surprised, looked up at the soft blue and smiled.

Ino gasped, felt herself blush as the tailor turned towards her, caramel eyes shining in the light, hands posed over the keys, and sleeves rolled to the elbow. He offered her a small, daring smirk, and took a deep breath, turning back to the grand instrument.

"Merry Christmas, everyone," he said softly, and struck the first note.

At the first few chords, Ino thought she recognized the song, but the title eluded her. She asked Sasuke, but he only stared at the pink on her cheeks, just visible in the dim light, and she had to look away. She would remember the title soon enough, anyway, she supposed. All she could place is that it was a Christmas Carol.

…

But…

They usually have… lyrics… right?

She was genuinely surprised when the first lines left his lips, in a smooth, clear voice, completely captivating his audience and filling the room with soft melody. She turned around to see a stunned Deidara, and mouthed, 'He's amazing!'

'He's not that great', the handsome blond replied with a shrug. Ino giggled at him, and hummed, moving her thumb rhythmically across the soft skin on Sasuke's hand. He wasn't completely relaxed yet, but he was getting there. Maybe it helped that it was dark, and he could barely see anything.

_"Pretty paper, pretty ribbons, of blue _

_Wrap your presents, to your darling, from you _

_Pretty pencils, to write 'I love you' _

_Pretty paper… pretty ribbons… are blue" _

Behind them, Ino heard Temari murmur that Christmas was a time for love and family. Kankurou chuckled and answered her quietly. She couldn't hear what he said. Then Shikamaru sighed, and she heard the scraping of a chair on the floor. Ino turned her head slightly so she could look over her shoulder. She bit her lip.

They were sitting so close, his arm around her waist, her head on his shoulder. Ino couldn't deny how good they looked together, how comfortable he seemed, speaking to her, when he tried to avoid Ino herself as much as possible, and wouldn't even look her in the eye. She couldn't deny that she didn't deserve him anyway. Temari didn't look like she was stupid enough to fool around with other people to get someone else to like her. How could she have been such an idiot?

Next to her, Itachi agreed to Temari's statement. "Hear that, Sasuke? It's a time for family…. How unfortunate that we couldn't all be here together."

Sasuke growled, wrenching his hand from Ino's grasp and lurching towards him, aiming to fasten his hands around his brother's neck as his blond date tried to stop him. Her interference allowed Itachi to dodge the blow, so that Sasuke's nails scraped down his neck, and he couldn't get a proper grip. He smirked, goaded him into trying again. Everyone's attention was focused completely on Sasori, and nobody except the three involved could really see anything. The fighting going on across Ino was hidden by her body from the people behind her.

_Crowded street, busy feet… hustle by him,  
Downtown shoppers, Christmas is nigh  
There he sits all alone on the sidewalk…  
Hoping, that you won't pass him by _

"Sasuke – Sasuke, stop. Please. Leave him alone. Guys!" she whispered fiercely, almost at her wits end as she tried to just break it up between them. Neither man listened to her, instead locking eyes in a fierce battle of glares, Itachi's triumphant smirk working against Sasuke set jaw. The youngest Uchiha swung a fist towards his brother.

"Sasuke plea -"

"_Should you stop? Better not. Much too busy,__  
You're in a hurry… my how time does fly…  
In the distance, the ringing, of laughter…  
And in the midst… of the laughter… he cries"_

They both froze.

Tears leaked from Ino's eyes, despite her efforts to contain them. She held both hands to her cheek, where it was doubtless a bruise was already forming. Her breath was shaky, hitching as she sucked it in and out. Her shoulders shook unsteadily. And the brothers stayed frozen, staring at the sobbing woman.

"Ino! I -"

"Don't touch me," she told Sasuke, voice cracking as she shoved away his hands with one of her own. "Just… Just leave me alone, okay? It's fine…. It'll stop hurting in a while…."

"Ino… maybe I should have a look at that," Itachi said, somewhat cautious around a crying girl. He usually didn't have to deal with them like this. Usually his work was quick. They'd be dead before they even knew what was happening. But he had no interest in killing Ino…. Not yet, at least. For now he would take care of her. Such acts of kindness aggravated his brother so, and increased her trust in him – something that could only work out well on his part. He put his hands on hers and made to pull them away from her face, but she stood up abruptly, shooting him a quick, pained, angry, fearful look, and darting away.

"_Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue…" _

"Ino!" Shikamaru called. "Are you okay?" He made to stand, but found he was still attached and tangled around Temari.

"_Wrap your presents to your darling… from you…"_

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she said, waving a hand behind her and keeping her back to him. "I just need to go to the bathroom."

"_Pretty pencils… to write 'I love you'"_

Shikamaru frowned. The women's bathroom was in the other direction...

"_Pretty paper… pretty ribbons… of blue…"_

* * *

_Pretty Paper! Ahh, that Xmas song really angsts me up. Ah well. I thought this chapter was alright… _

_Anyone else think that pianist Sasori is pretty? Because I really do. Alright. FINE. Maybe that's just me. Onoes. Sasuke hit Ino. What will happen now? Dun dun DUN!_

_Sorry._

_Anyways, just out of curiosity, because it probably wont change the storyline, because I know what is going to happen ultimately, but if there's anything you would think would be good, or any pairing (Ino pairing, preferably) that you want to happen, then hey, include it in your review. Coz I'm open to ideas. Its all good. :D_

_Um._ _Quote._

_If you love something, set it free… If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it._

_Now._ _Unfortunately, I'm a little praise-starved right now. So no more chapters till I get at least 7 positive reviews. Positive includes constructive criticism too. That's fine. But if you list bad points, make sure you list good ones too. Feeling fragile._

_And I'm sort of hating Itachi at the moment... Which is... unfortunate... because he's really damn awesome cool. But I'm actually on Sasuke's side now... I wasnt before - I used to hate Sasuke. But I dunno. Something happened. But yeah... the character's likeability changes in this story depending on my own personal preferences, because its hard to write people you hate... heh. XD_

_Anyways, see you later._

_Love, SliverOfSilver_


	11. Chapter 11

_Author's Note: Omg! Dammit this was such an annoying chapter to write! I don't know what it was about it, maybe it was that I had no idea what was going to happen, because what I first planned wasn't working for me so I completely changed it and shit came out of nowhere. What the hell is wrong with me? What's wrong with the bloody WORLD? How come this is my longest chapter when it was so freakin hard to write. I'm serious. It was like, two hours on one page. It's like DIE I HATE YOU! Stupid story._

_But its worth it if you guys enjoy it. It's okay. Don't feel bad. I just tend to angst a lot. Ooooh well._

_Pairings: KibaxIno (is back!), DeidaraxIno. I think that's it. God help me if I can't remember. –dies-_

**

* * *

**

I'm closer to you 

**Than I was in the start**

**But I dive right in**

**And you tear me apart**

* * *

**I remember the chapter number! This one is 11 :O**

Kiba had spent the first hour of the night pretending to stare dully at his glass, under the guise that he had attended simply for the promised alcohol, and was unhappy at the state of emptiness. His best friend, Shino, a PI, kept assuring him that the wine would be served soon enough, and Naruto – the bastard – kept trying to put the Alcoholics Anonymous number into his mobile.

_Dick._

In actual fact, he would have considered having the coloured drink a particularly annoying (if not tempting) little obstacle. He would much rather stare through the _clear_ glass to the loud, rambunctious blond who was clinging to that stupid cop-drop _Sasuke_.

That guy had rubbed Kiba the wrong way ever since they started attending the police academy together.

Him, Naruto, Sasuke, some other emotionless prick he could never remember the name of, all learning under the tutelage of off-duty CIA agents and police academy teachers alike. Kiba remembered his senior mentor with some fondness – a gorgeous woman with long black hair by the name of Kurenai, who had taken a special interest in him. She'd helped Shino too – even though he was not technically part of the organisation – and would take them both along on set-up stake outs. She would have done everything in her power to protect them, but Kiba made sure it'd never come to that. After all, women were meant to be protected, right? That was a man's job. That's what his father had told him before he died, anyway.

_Heh… As if Mum and Hana need me looking after them in the first place…._

Sasuke had gotten some perverted, lazy bastard, who was always known to have his head in a scary (_brilliant_ – no, wait -) orange book. Maybe that's the reason he was such an ass all the time. It's not like his role model was anyone special to take advice from.

Well. Maybe the socially-retarded agent was doing something right after all. Either by way of tutorage or self training, Sasuke had excelled anyway. He was constantly top of the class. He passed the gun course (at first) with flying colours, and beat everyone in tracking (only just, dammit!), he was a pro at handling (seducing) the grieving families, and he _aced_ interrogation. Whatever. You name it, he could do it. Not that he was very popular for acting like he did. To Kiba, policing was about working as a team to take down the enemy. Sasuke had never grasped that concept. Kiba and Naruto always worked well together. Even that other guy was a little better than the number 1. angst-ridden copper Sasuke Uchiha.

What did Ino want with a guy terrified of guns anyway? He was just a melodramatic little shit as far as Kiba was concerned. Cut the bull and get over it already. It wasn't like he was the only person who had crap in his life. Even if there was nothing wrong with a policeman before he started, seeing mutilated corpses and having to interview distraught relatives about something you knew was hopeless took some toll.

"_Did they suffer?"_

Yes.

"… _No… They died quickly. They wouldn't even have felt it."_

His first murder case. The truth didn't matter.

Kiba had thrown up, and had to hold onto Naruto's shoulder to stay standing. Strange… the blond never showed weakness like that….

He looked up from his glass as Ino got to her feet, making some sort of awkward flinch away from the other guy sitting to her left. He watched as she dragged Sasuke along in her wake towards the middle of the room. Kiba was one table away from the closest one from the door, and hadn't even noticed the Hyuuga bastard and his assistant come in.

_Oh. That's right. Go and greet them. Happy, happy, happy._

Sasuke and Ino. Neji and Tenten. Blah, blah, blah, holding hands. Speak to _her_ speak to _him_, hold _his_ hand, stay _away _from the stupid _middle class _idiotright

Oh, he was in a good mood.

A great one.

Couldn't _get_ any better.

"Hey, it's Sasuke! Haven't seen that bastard in ages!" Naruto said cheerily, ever the persistent ray of fucking sunshine. He had followed Kiba's irritated gaze towards the four upperclassmen, and was already getting up from his seat. Next to him, Hinata Hyuuga shuffled her chair over so that he would have more room to stand. Kiba scowled as he went off towards his old classmate.

"Is there anything wrong?" Shino asked. His head was turned in Kiba's direction, but as always, his sunglasses had been kept on – even though they were inside. He could be looking _anywhere_ for all Kiba knew.

_Now that I think about it… That's actually a good idea._

He could have a lot of fun with that.

"Nope. Nothing. I'm just really, really bored."

"… There's meant to be entertainment booked."

"They're not doing a very good job of it."

Shino sighed. Kiba looked around and saw Hinata eyeing him wearily. He felt guilty. She always made him feel guilty. Ever since he missed that… that one shot….

"Hey! Kiba! Look who it is!" Naruto grinned, practically blinding him with his stupid, optimistic smile.

Kiba leaned back in his chair, raising his chin to the other man, and more or less ignoring him. Shino greeted him politely, not even attempting a smile. This weird-looking guy to the left of the PI, who had been busy balancing as many pieces of cutlery on his fingertip as possible, shot to his feet and put his hand to his heart.

"Mr. Uchiha! Dutiful worker of whom I must protect! It is I! Lee! From the eleventh floor!"

Everyone stared at him as he continued. Sasuke looked just about ready to swallow his own tongue.

"Even though Miss. Haruno's feelings towards you appear to be absolute, I will do my best to protect you too!"

"… Hn…"

Lee promptly sat back down, having said his piece. His eyes were alert, darting all around the room. He looked like he was suffering from some sort of massive sugar overload, like he had gone completely hyper after sitting still and containing himself for so long.

Kiba leant back in his chair, pouting angrily, and refusing to look Sasuke in the face at all. He busied himself with gazing past the other man's shoulder, at the person who had been occupying most of his attention for that night. Sasuke, while his eyes slowly narrowed more and more as Naruto attempted to engage him in conversation, noticed the stare. He turned slightly, realised what the copper was looking at, and focused him with a glare so intense, it could have melted a hole through metal.

-----------------

When Naruto finally allowed Sasuke to leave – thanks to the suggestion of Hinata herself – Kiba relaxed slightly. _Slightly_ being the key word here. Seeings as though _they_ were still way too close to each other for his liking – had Ino had some bout of separation anxiety when he came over to Kiba's table? She wouldn't let him go – he wasn't too pleased. He returned to his former position, head resting on his arms, staring through the glass.

If he had been paying proper attention, he would have noticed the silent staring from Hinata to Naruto, the blushing every time he turned his head, and the long breath released through Shino's nose whenever it happened. He would have noticed that Naruto kept glancing over his shoulder towards Ino's table whenever he could – whenever he thought no one was watching.

But, unfortunately, everyone knew that Naruto wasn't the most subtle of people. Hinata saw every time he did it, and her shy smile got even less and less throughout the time they spent together.

Kiba growled as the lights suddenly dimmed, making him unable to see anything – especially not Ino, who was mostly hidden from his angle by two black haired men in black suits. He straightened up. Stupid Uchiha's and their stupid camouflage abilities. Stupid bastards, the whole lot of them.

Bastards.

Bastards.

Bastards!

Some guy was getting onto the stage, opening the lid of the grand piano. He looked familiar… in a bad sort of way. Kiba knew he knew him from somewhere. Somewhere he wasn't ever supposed to be….

What was it?

As pale fingers struck the first chords, Naruto shot his companion a quick look through the shadow. Both men struggled to figure out where they knew the pianist from.

As the Christmas carol was sung, Kiba just put his head back down on his folded arms and replaced his frustrated, confused face with his familiar scowl. He was a bad tempered old shit tonight.

_Stupid asshole of a pianist… Heh. Pianist… Couldn't we still have the lights on while he did this? He's not that great. He didn't need a spotlight. What if I was doing something and they turn the lights off and then I can't see anymore, and I end up hurting myself – or someone else? Bet they never thought of that, did they? _

_This is stupid. This whole stupid party is stupid._

He blinked as Sasori's spotlight changed, moving to another position and making it so that he could see through it to Ino's table. They were all barely lit, but he could pick out the shining white skirt and the pale blond hair. His mood lightened considerably.

_Wait… What are they doing?_

He got to his feet as swiftly as possible as Ino held her face in her hands, shoulders shaking. That Sasuke-fucking-asshole had fucking punched her! What the fuck was wrong with this girl? Why go out with a stupid _shit_ like him when Kiba was _right there_ and liked her so much? He started towards her, ignoring the angry hisses of the people he was blocking. As she changed direction, so did he. She was slinking around the back of the dining hall, heading towards the door.

------------------

"I'll kill him."

"Don't be stupid."

Kiba growled, eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness of the staircase outside the dining room. He and Ino were there alone; him, standing against the door, and her leaning tiredly on the wall across from him.

"Ino. He _hit_ you."

She tossed her hair back behind her shoulder. "He didn't mean to. It was an accident."

_I knew he was sensitive about his family, but… Itachi is all he has left…. Why was he so violent?_

"Your cheek is fucking _purple_."

She turned her gaze to the floor, seeming too tired to argue with him. Quietly, she pulled a small pink mirror from her handbag, and looked at the injury herself.

He was right. It had already bruised pretty badly.

_I didn't even think it was that hard…_

But she hadn't had many head injuries. They're always quick to bruise, and prefer floods to trickles when the skin is cut.

It wasn't too big, just along the line of her left cheekbone. But it was noticeable. Very noticeable. She needed something to cover it. Her hair would be okay if it was only for a short amount of time, but the night wouldn't be over for hours yet, and she had to stay for cleanup.

"All it needs is a bit of cover-up," she said, half to Kiba, half to herself. "It doesn't hurt much when I move it, so it'll be fine. What's the worst that could happen? I stay quiet a little more than usual? Everyone'll probably be thankful."

"If _you_ shut up they'll _know_ something's wrong," he snapped, crossing his arms and glaring at her through narrowed brown eyes. Her attempts at humour were lost on him. He was too fucking pissed off. And worried. And pissed off.

"I hate you."

"I don't care."

"You do."

"I do. And you _don't_. So it's fine."

She just scowled at his serious face, and returned her attention back to the mirror. One hand held it to her face while the other one went digging around in her handbag, feeling for the foundation she had brought along.

Ah, makeup could make it all better…

"Can you hold the mirror for me?" she asked. To her defense, it was unreasonably difficult for her to apply it with one hand. That's what bathrooms were for. With _basins_ and _sinks _and _big mirrors she didn't have to hold_!

"No. I want to take you home. Or to a doctor. Either way is fine with me."

He eyed the mirror as if it had played a massive part in injuring her. It reminded him of those people that weren't involved in the actual murders, but that hid the bodies anyway, and thought they were guiltless. Obstructing justice.

_Burn, bastards._

"What? You wouldn't! I worked so hard on this stupid thing, and you're _not_ taking me away from it! Besides! This is like, nothing! It's just a little bruise -"

Lucky the doors were so thick, otherwise Kiba's frustrated shout would have been heard by everyone. "It looks like someone has smashed a fucking plum all over your cheek!"

"It's not that bad!" she countered, throwing her mirror to the floor angrily, mentally wincing as it hit the ground and smashed.

_Seven years. Ah, crap._

Both were silent, then Kiba sighed, dropped his tightly crossed arms to his sides. They both stared, each trying to make the other understand.

Eventually he knelt and picked up the mirror.

"You don't have to -"

His irritated growl cut her off. Couldn't she just let him pick the freakin' thing up? He was already there, he was already doing it, couldn't she just be happy with the favour and not make a big deal? What the hell was _with_ women anyway?

"Fine. Do what you want. I don't care," she spat, irritated that someone she was fighting with was being mature.

"Here," he said, holding the pocket object and suddenly seeming taller than he ever had before. "Take your stupid mirror back."

"Fine!" she snapped, slapping her hand on the mirror and making to take at back. She groaned inwardly at his gasp of pain. She didn't want to lift her hand.

_This is not a nice night. This _sucks_. It sucks it sucks it sucks._

--------------

"You think people will come looking for me?" she asked, sighing as she shifted in the uncomfortable waiting seats at the hospital. "We're gonna be in here for ages, you know that? Casualty _sucks_."

She'd lightened towards him once she impaled his hand with glass.

"Well. If you hadn't shoved this crap through me, we wouldn't be here."

She punched him on the arm, and immediately felt bad. He could see it in her face. It made him smirk.

"People are looking at us weird," Ino observed, changing the subject and shooting a 'what are _you_ looking at' glare to some freak across the room with a heavily bandaged foot.

"That's because I'm a wife beater and you tried to fight back for once, succeeded, and felt bad, because I'm going to be even angrier, and beat you even harder next time." He fought back a wide-eyed stare from a woman a couple of seats away from him.

_He seemed to have worked that out kind of thoroughly._

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

Kiba sighed, leaning back in his chair and cradling his arm. Was that rain he heard?

Probably.

Just their luck. They had to walk there in the first place. True, it _was_ only a couple of blocks away, but it was raining heavy. It was raining so bad that when some idiot who'd gotten drunk and tried to feed children to Chihuahuas and gotten beaten up by a gang of mothers because of it opened the door to come and whine to Casualty about how unlucky he was, water from outside was released all over the floor.

Not nice.

In fact, crappy!

Kiba snarled his protests. Ino, who usually would have done the same, was having to laugh at him to keep from crying.

"Kiba Inuzuka?"

The nurse from the ward announced his name, and he and Ino looked up at her. Her eyes darted from Ino's face to Kiba's hand, and immediately she lit up in a bright, fake smile. _Everything will be okay. Domestic violence. It's okay. You don't have to be embarrassed._

"Would you like to come through?"

"Yeah… okay…." He sounded resigned.

Ino went to follow him, but the nurse placed a hand on her shoulder, gave her a long, hard '_I know what you're going through, you don't have to be in there with him_' look, and wouldn't let her through. The blond secretary started to say something, and caught sight of Kiba's face just before the door closed on her.

_Where the hell do you think you're going?_

-----------------

"Sasuke? Yeah. It's me - …. No, I'm fine. I just had to take one of my friends into Casualty. He hurt his hand…. No it's not just an excuse! I'm fine! No – No, shut up. I said shut up! I might be here for awhile, so just have fun without me, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can, alright?"

She listened dully to his protests. Why did the guy ever bother arguing with her in the first place? It was futile, after all. If she wanted to do something, she would do it. Honestly. What was he going to do, come down to Casualty himself?

She shuddered at the thought.

Disastrous.

She checked her watch. She'd been there for twenty minutes. Kiba had been inside for five. She was happy, in a way, that he got priority. He had glass shards in his hands, which needed to be taken out lest it get infected. Plus he was still bleeding. She remembered this one time, _ages_ ago, when she had had to go to hospital. She was suffering from serious migraines, and they made her wait for almost four hours, bumping her back for what they considered more serious cases. By the end, it felt like her head had just torn apart.

She sighed and sank down in her chair, playing with the end of her white skirt. God those Christmas earrings were a pain. Fuzzy and heavy with lights and stuff. Maybe she should turn those off….

She sighed as her phone went off again.

"Sasuke, what the hell do you – Oh. Hi, Deidara…? Why are you using Sasuke's phone?"

"_I don't have your number."_

Oh. Der.

"What's up?"

In the background, she could hear Tenten's voice. She seemed to be trying to get people to talk to each other. Neji told her dully to stop trying a couple of times, and Sasori was laughing politely at jokes Sakura was making. Hidan was saying _something_, but she couldn't understand much of it.

"_Oi._ _Deidara. Who're you talking to? That doesn't look like your phone."_

The blond model sighed, and through the phones it sounded like a huge burst of static.

"_You need to come back here."_

"I don't want to walk in the rain," she told him. Why would she want to go back? She felt too bad about Kiba anyway. She wouldn't go until he'd been bandaged up and everything, no matter the stares she had to endure from the people around her. Were they _still_ going on about that?

Urgh.

"_Fine._ _See you later then."_

He hung up.

---------------------

"Um… hey. I'm Kiba Inuzuka's friend? Are you done with him yet? It's been like, half an hour already. There wasn't _that _much glass, was there?"

"Oh, right… him. We had to take him away… for… surgery." The nurse was lying. How obvious did they want to get?

"Why does he need surgery? It wasn't _that_ serious!"

"I just do what I'm told."

Ino scowled darkly, and watched with narrowed eyes as she closed the door and went around to the counter behind the glass where people had to fill out their details before they were admitted.

"See…. That's the one I was talking about…."

"Poor girl…. She must be so scared of him to still be here…."

"Yeah…. We can't let her in no matter what. It's best for her to just get away why she can…"

"… Called Social Services….

The blond slapped her head in frustration. Maybe it _would_ be easier to just go.

"Ino!"

She swung round to see a slightly damp Deidara walk through the door, shaking off a black umbrella and pushing back blond hair from his eyes. She walked over to him, arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, closing the door behind him to stop the water that was flooding around her feet. "I was going to come back _eventually_."

He smiled and frowned in turn. "What happened to you?" His eyes darted around the room, trying to find the 'friend' she was meant to be there with.

Ino shrugged, put a strand of hair behind her ear. "Nothing much. Just had a bit of an accident."

Deidara stared at her hard, then closed his eyes and dipped his head backwards, stretching out his neck. When he finally looked back at her, he appeared nonchalant about the whole situation.

"Mmmkay… Come on then," he offered, grinning as he opened the door again and both of them were hit by the wind and rain. Ino slapped at his arm, getting him to close the door.

"You're completely destroying these clothes! Deidara, you must _think_ about what you're doing."

"I apologise," he told her, dipping his head gracefully. Stepping in front of her, he opened the door again, flaring open the umbrella and holding it out like a shield. "This time, I'll protect you and your beautiful clothes, milady. Never fear."

Ino smiled reluctantly, and looked away towards the admittance desk. The nurse managing it was giving her a less-than-subtle encouraging smile. _No way will we let you be near him_, she was saying. _Go with the nice man_.

Did she dare? Kiba would be so pissed…. And she would feel really, really bad. But she did have to get back to the party. Otherwise everything would go downhill without her!

_Obviously_.

She sighed, left Deidara, who sneered at the rain as it soaked through the bottoms of his pant legs, and left a message saying sorry, and that she had had to go with the do-good nurse.

"Okay. Let's go."

**

* * *

**

I'll admit it, I'm strung out by your touch 

**But I can't get enough**

**We are so unstable**

* * *

_Unstable, by Adema._ _One of my much-loved bands that no one has ever heard of._

_Now._ _We have a bit of a dilemma. Chief among them, I'm going to Bush School in two days, and that goes for the whole week. Tents, sex ed and geography. I love geography. Anyway. Lots of contact with people, which means separation anxiety towards my computer and my cat. Talent nights, spiders (eep), snakes (YAY! D) and other such campy things. Wow. Haven't camped for a very long time._

_Um, I know that some of the bits in this chapter were a little unrealistic. So there's really no need to comment on that. Every time I post something it is critically evaluated, so there is very little possibility that there is something I didn't mean to put in here. I'm sorry, by the way, for the spelling mistakes in last chapter. I am disgusted._

_Anyway, so unfortunately, next chapter might be a bit late… like the others. I'm sorry, I just really have to get on top of all my other stupid shit._

_Oh! Speaking of shit, Stephanie. You better fucking hurry up, otherwise I might have to smash your piggy bank. If you love your piggy bank half as much as I do, then this means you will want to join it in the depths of hell, and its quite a considerable threat. OR of course, I could rearrange your circulatory system while you're still conscious._

_Anyway, Au Revoir._

_Quote: leche ma chatte_


	12. Chapter 12

_Author's Note: Fuck me, this is a long chapter! My God. I didn't want to split it up though – like over two – and it has a whole bunch of little time skip segments in here. Hopefully you won't get too annoyed. It sort of leaves things to the imagination, sometimes. It's not very confusing. I hope. Maybe its because I'm writing it._

_As usual, most of the stuff in here came mostly out of nowhere. And its so looong! Argh! 13 pages XD This whole story so far is what… 87 pages? It's like woah! –is massive- _

_Anyway, I'll leave any more talk to the author's note at the bottom._

**

* * *

**

If I had to 

**I would put myself right beside you**

**So let me ask**

**Do you like that? Do you like that?**

* * *

**Chapter 12.**

"So what was your friend in the hospital for anyway?"

Deidara moved closer, so as to better shelter them both with the umbrella. Although the woman kept her face forward, his eyes never left her.

"I basically high-fived him when he was holding the remnants of a broken mirror in his hand," Ino told the model flatly, avoiding looking at his face.

"That was sweet of you…. Should I be worried?"

She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, sighing. "Just don't let me hold that umbrella. You'd end up impaled on the end or something."

"I'd do well to remember that, yeah?" he chuckled.

Ino smiled half-heartedly, still feeling bad that she had left Kiba in the hands of interfering nurses in the Casualty ward, and looked at the blond next to her. Blue met blue, he smiled, and she blushed, lowering her head again. They continued on in silence.

It was at times like this – when everything was quiet and nobody spoke, _not_ when she was being shown such kindness from a wet, _gorgeous _man who was walking very, very close to her – that she felt she would usually just relax and calm down. She felt tired, much too tired. Mental strength would be needed if she was going to follow Deidara back to the party, and she was taking all the time she had to build that strength up.

_Maybe I should tell him that. He might think I'm ignoring him._

"My shoes are being ruined," she groaned instead, staring at her feet. One of her coat sleeves was also soaking wet. Despite how close she and Deidara were under the black cloth of the umbrella, she still wasn't completely safe from the rain. It clung to her as it ricocheted off store windows to her left.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"You should be. It's a very important subject, after all."

"But of course."

There were lights everywhere. Both of them were cast in dappled colours from displays all over the street. Deidara was lit by gold, and his eyes glistened. There was a slight wind blowing through the rain.

"My hair is wet," he mused, taking a strand and running it through his fingers. "And so are my shoes. And so is the rest of me. Getting sort of cold, now that I think about it."

Ino smirked and nudged him in the side. "Would you like my jacket, then?" she asked, teasing him as she started to remove her white coat. Lucky she had grabbed it just before she'd gone with Kiba to the hospital. He raised an eyebrow, grinned, and snaked and arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

"It'll be fine, yeah."

"Deidara! You're all wet," she complained. She made herself comfortable anyway, though. As long as Sasuke wasn't around to see, it would be fine. There would be no scene caused, and she could gleefully enjoy sticking it to him. Even though she had told him and Kiba that she didn't care, it was natural that she'd want to do something like that after he had punched _her_ trying to get to his brother. Problem was, with Sasuke, he was very, very possessive, and even more competitive. She was surprised he'd let Deidara leave at all. Then again, the blond model was almost four years his senior, and it looked like he was used to dealing with people anyway. It's not like the modeling business had room for pushovers anyway.

"Don't worry. Not too far to go now."

--------------

Ino was less than delighted to walk back into the hall with Deidara and find that there was only one seat left at the table, and that was his. He offered it too her numerous times, and maybe, _maybe_ it would have been easier to just accept, but the seat _was_ his, and _hers_ had been stolen by a Sasuke-thirsty Sakura. As soon as Ino had walked in the door, Sasuke had looked up, possibly ignoring his pink secretary even more than he had before. He shot Deidara a glare as both blonds approached their table, and the bomber graced the Uchiha gunner with a smirk.

Ino forced Deidara – her new ultimate favourite person – to sit down. He did so reluctantly. At least this way, maybe she could get away from the Uchiha brothers for a while, and still be present at her own party. She could probably take Kiba's place. Of course, Naruto and the rest of his table would ask questions, but they could be easily taken care of. She wasn't a lawyer for nothing, after all.

Almost immediately after she said she wouldn't be taking another chair from opposing tables – everything had been worked out _perfectly,_ dammit, and the few spares she had were taken by the four gatecrashers – Sasori stood up.

"Take mine."

"No," Sasuke jumped, rising to his feet as well. "Take mine."

Kankurou, who had been dying of boredom, left his chair as well – mostly likely just for something to do. "Have mine if you want. I'll probably be off soon anyway." He was sort of only half looking at her. His brother just kept staring.

Neji followed suit. "I should get back to work, Ino. You can -"

"Fucking hell!"

Ino gasped as she was suddenly wrenched sideways and down, completely losing balance and having to sling an arm around her captor's neck to keep herself steady. Hidan shifted in his seat, putting his knee under hers so that it would be slightly more comfortable for her.

"There we go. Not so fucking hard, is it? Bunch of chivalrous fuckers…" he muttered, readjusting Ino so that she wasn't almost choking him with the arm around his neck. "So who's a fucking genius, now? This way no one has to leave, and…"

- He put his lips on her neck, and placed an arm around her stomach, make her blush like crazy, kneading her thighs nervously with her knuckles.

"… everyone's happy."

From her place on Hidan's lap – to the left of Tenten, and the right of Kankurou – she tried to avoid the eye of everyone else on the table. The weight of the silence completely trumped a million elephants combined.

--------------

There seemed to be a separate world outside of Ino's table. Chatter around the room just kept going, people kept enjoying themselves, waiting for their food to come. No one noticed her less-than-perfect situation with the silver-haired 'bad boy' and all his rivals. She wished she could just stick her head in the sand and get away from everything.

Temari, five seats to Ino's left, watched the reactions of the men around the table as soon as Hidan made his move. Sasori had snarled slightly, Neji raised an eyebrow, Itachi's eyes narrowed, Kankurou sniggers, Gaara stared, and Sasuke fixed the model with the King of all Glares. Her own date, Shikamaru, who had asked her not-all-that spontaneously to be his date to the function in the first place, curled his hands into a fist angrily, and she noticed his jaw muscles clench. She frowned.

_I'll just have to change that._

After all, he had returned the coy looks from across the desk in his office. He had fought like a madman in the court to defend her brother and the honour of her family name. It wasn't as if he didn't like her. She just had to make him forget about that _princess_ and wake up to himself. Maybe she was an ex or something he hadn't gotten over. She didn't really know the story behind it herself. All she did know, is that he was a little _too _protective of someone who was just his secretary.

The heiress woke up from her thoughts to loud, hysterical laughter.

Kankurou. Her eldest brother. Should she have been surprised? Looking at his glass, he had probably already had an unhealthy amount of wine – a lot of people had, it seemed. But what else were they going to do to try and ignore the tension around the table?

Kankurou was laughing so hard he was barely breathing, slamming his fist hard on the table as he used his free hand to clutch at his ribs. Everyone stared at him. Some people wore puzzled expressions, and the rest were slowly getting angrier. Then something happened, something changed. Tenten started giggling, and Sakura joined in.

"What's so funny?" Neji asked his secretary, staring flatly across the table at her. Temari noted with some amusement that his pale eyes were starting to droop. Maybe he just wasn't a giggling drunk like the rest of them.

"Y-You're just all so… _tight_! It's Christmas! The faces you're wearing are – are…!"

Tenten was unable to finish the sentence. Smiles were starting to appear on other faces. Deidara was chuckling and Sasori grinned lightly. Hidan sighed and rested his head on the back of Ino's neck, but he was the only one not caring before, so that was okay. Sasuke scowled, Neji looked nonplussed. When Ino at last started laughing, and realised that if she pretended like nothing had happened then no one else would make a big deal out of it either, everything seemed to clear up almost instantly. Just as the pointless laughter came to a close, the food came.

-------------

A half hour later, Ino had actually managed to relax, even with the minor molestation suit that Hidan was building against himself. She spent most of her time making enthusiastic small talk, but would immediately divert herself once Hidan's teeth snapped by her ear. At which point, she would lean forward, grab his plate and feed him off it. She thought it rather amusing. He was behaving like a kid. A very tall, pretty, mischievous, foul-mouthed kid, and what could she say? He just seemed so… adorable? He could actually pull off the _eyes_ thing, when he really, really wanted. Her motherly instinct was completely taking over. Sasuke kept shooting her looks, which were returned with a raised eyebrow and a _just get over it_ shake of the head, and she actually managed to speak to Gaara Sabaku, after getting into a keen conversation to do with movies with his brother. Kankurou designed sets and props for movies. He would make puppets and dummies and make them take the place of actors, so he could map out scenes before they were presented to producers. His services were also used for stunts.

Basically, what she got to learn about Gaara, was that the redhead was not nervous about his trial, he had already decided on the outcome, and he was not happy about Christmas being so close. Eep. Friendly. But he almost smiled once. Almost. And that was when she was teasing Kankurou about _what_ sort of movies he participated in.

_Well. He said movies and life-sized, as-good-as-the-real-thing dummies. What _else _was I to think?_

_---------------_

"So, Ino, when did you get that bruise, anyway?" Tenten ended up asking eventually. People had been avoiding the question all night, assuming it was nothing serious, because Ino herself didn't really seem to care.

"It's really nothing important. I was taking Kiba to Casualty, and slipped over in the rain. I hit my head on one of the store windows – _so_ lucky nothing was broken, seriously," she smiled, leaning back onto Hidan's chest. She felt him laugh beneath her.

"Sounds like something Deidara did once," he sniggered, shooting a look to the blond bomber from across the table. Interest was piqued, everyone turned to look at him.

"What happened?" Ino asked, biting her lip at the scowl on his face, but wanting to know anyway. Deidara sighed at the unwanted attention, and lifted the long stream of hair away from his left eye. It seemed slightly paler than his other one.

"Photoshoot gone wrong," he sighed, lifting a lip towards a smirking Hidan. "We were going for a sci-fi shoot, and I had to wear this heavy, metal piece of crap over my eye. It was fine for a while, but it had to move and dart around for the… complete effect, or something…. I don't know. Either way, something sparked, and it hurt."

"Oh my god, Dei! Are you okay?" Ino asked, eyes wide and hand over her mouth. She had taken to calling him Dei midway through their walk back. She thought it sounded cute on him. She missed Shikamaru's '_blah blah blah I wub joo Deidei'_ mock session away to her left, but Sakura saw it and laughed. Unfortunately for her, she was mostly ignored – as usual. Ha.

"I got over it," he said, letting silky blond fall back across his face. "But I don't see out of it so well anymore."

Tenten frowned and focused a slightly tipsy gaze on Hidan. "You liar. That's not like what happened to Ino at all."

"Oi. Fuck you, bitch," the model snarled. "Tell them the rest of the story, asshole," he commanded.

"There's nothing more to tell," Deidara returned flatly, with a sort of 'just drop it' kind of tone.

"I thought there was something missing from your recount," Sasori mused. "The rest had something to do with makeup and high shoes…. I believe you were wearing a midriff too."

"Hey, you. Shut up."

"I remember that," Itachi smirked. Deidara bared his teeth.

"Little _Miss_ fucking _Priss_ managed to – right after they'd put him in nine fucking story high boots – try and finish putting on his makeup and enter the studio, _which_, might I add, had just been fucking cleaned."

"As you can guess, he missed the '_caution'_ sign," Sasori said smugly.

Ino closed her eyes and laughed silently, although Deidara in high boots and the tight leather that usually went along with matrix/sci-fi-themed things was quite a happy sight, the image of him falling because of it was also pretty hilarious.

_I wonder if he wears a monocle… Wow. That would be cool…_

"It wasn't funny. I got a whole stick of eyeliner in my fucking eye, and then it started to _burn_," the blond shot defensively, referring to how the eyescope had started to spark. "Maybe you should try it sometime. It's great that you think me losing most of my sight in one eye is so amusing."

Ino became serious, guilty she had laughed. Hidan, however, was slightly less obliging. He continued to laugh wholeheartedly with most of the others at the table until Deidara flipped him the bird. The silver model stopped immediately, scowling and leaning forward to pick up his knife. Ino, startled, hit him sharply in the shoulder.

"What are you going to do with that?" she chided. "Throw it at him?"

Suddenly his grip tightened around her waist and hips. If he was worried about her trying to get away, he needn't have been. The drilling stare, hypnotizing like a snake's, was holding her easily in place. He brought his lips to her ear, and spoke low enough for no one else to hear.

"Hit me again."

"Now, now, none of that," Kankurou announced, leaning in close so that his cheek was almost touching Hidan's. "Her date's just over there, you know. What are you guys talking about, anyway?"

"Nothing much," Hidan said smoothly. Ino's eyes were still wide, and staring into his. He smirked slightly, and loosened his arms around her.

---------------

By eleven o'clock everyone was getting drunk, and were more accepting towards trivia games than they would have been before. Due to Sasuke's complaining, Ino had gone back over to him, leaving a seriously less than impressed Hidan. The blond secretary straddled her date's knee, and was nominated scribe – being not as drunk as some others, as well as being a popular choice in the first place.

Near the grand piano on the stage, Hinata was standing, readying the question cards that she was going to have to read out. She was blushing slightly, but didn't appear to be all that nervous despite that. Questions had been submitted by all of the tables, and nobody else knew what the other groups were going to ask. Ino and the others had contributed with things from a variety of category's, including fashion – how could they not? – law, sports, TV – more specifically Ino's soaps – and music. She scribbled the team name Sasori had suggested before on the top of the sheet.

Akatsuki.

"I like the sound of that. Where'd you get it?" Ino asked him. He shared a look with his comrades around the table.

"Just made it up then."

---------------

"On the hit Soap, _I'll Love You Forever, You Sexy Thing, Even Though You're My Cousin_, what happened to Gloria's nineteenth husband?"

"The cheating slut drowned him. While she pashed him after her wedding to his step-twin's uncle. And he was driving. Couldn't see, lost control and smashed into a glacier. He took the actual _current_ husband too, that was driving in the other car," Neji said immediately, a lopsided smile on his face as he remembered the moment. He took another swig of wine, and poked his tongue out at Ino, who had responded a second later.

"I always said, the best thing he ever did is break up with her," Ino nodded wisely. "I felt sorry for Signor Catastrophe when she sunk her claws into _him_.

"How did _you_ know that?" Sakura asked incredulously, staring at the high boss Hyuuga.

"I like my TV," he told her. "What do you think I do in my office all day?"

Tenten snorted, and Neji shot her a look. Ino decided not to go there, clapping a hand over Hidan's mouth and receiving what could easily be classified as a tongue pash on her palm.

"I don't know too many men who watch Soapies," she mused, looking dreamy-eyed at her boss. Neji Hyuuga seemed just so _perfect_ sometimes.

"Well _I_ certainly don't watch that crap," the high boss slurred, obviously unaware of _what_ he was doing. Ino stared at him, confused, and the others laughed. Poor Neji. He was completely out of it.

"That's really sad…" Sakura said quietly. "Their wedding day…." She was an angsty drunk. Oh dear.

"I promise that I won't… drown you on _our_ wedding day," Sasuke said, slumping even further forward, so that his head rested solidly on her shoulder. Ino, surprised, looked automatically to Shikamaru, who was a shifty drunk, eyes constantly darting around to look at everything. He seemed really, _really_ paranoid for some reason. It was probably just the alcohol.

"That's nice to know, Sasuke," Ino smiled. "Where's the next question, it's not coming!" she shouted. Ino was a slightly eccentric drunk. She had moodswings even worse than when she was sober.

"What was voted 'Hottest Design' this year, and who was the fashion genius that designed it?" Hinata asked softly through the mic in the middle of the room.

"I would have _no_ idea," Ino said, slapping her head on the table in shame. "I missed the last issue due to work." She poked her tongue out at Shikamaru, who wasn't watching her, instead making a move towards Temari's neck.

"It's the Bow. The one featured in the magazine was purple," Sasori said confidently. "Orochimaru Sannin designed it. I met him at the premiere of this season's line."

"You know Orochimaru? I _love_ him!" Tenten said, obviously in awe. She sunk down onto the table and looked up at his slightly smiling face adoringly. "Did you ever know that you're my hero?"

"I don't like those bow things. I think they look stupid," Kankurou sighed.

"Ever tried wearing one of the fucking things?" Hidan snapped, raising an eyebrow.

"You have no idea," Itachi contributed.

"Wow. Modelling can suck."

Ino was nodding when she felt someone else's foot on hers. Her eyes darted around the table. No one showed signs that it was them doing it. Whoever it was wasn't wearing shoes, because she could feel soft socks stroking up her calf. She squirmed on Sasuke's lap.

"What is the 77th Pokémon?"

"Easy," Hidan grinned. "Ponyta." He froze as everyone stared at him. "You assholes fuck the hell off, okay? You want the fucking point or not?"

"I used to love Pokémon…" Kankurou sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Well what do you want? To fucking get married?"

"I used to, too," Ino said, remembering times she would hijack Sasuke's gameboy to actually play it.

"Fuck. Now _there's_ an offer."

"I'm feeling popular. I'm getting married to Sasuke _and_ Hidan," the blond smiled cheerily.

"Sure you don't want to run away with the best man, now?" Deidara winked, effectively pissing off his swear-happy colleague.

"Don't be a slut," Sasori told him dully. Ino laughed, as did the other girls. Gaara Sabaku closed his eyes wearily. He and Shikamaru had barely opened their mouths all night.

"What is a subpoena?" Hinata asked quietly from her place on stage. Ino wondered why she wasn't with the rest of her table, and asked Tenten about it. Apparently she was filling in until the guy that had actually been meant to do it got there. It was actually a team, that was meant to be asking the questions – agents from somewhere or another. A group of about six of them. They should have been there ages ago, but something seemed to have happened to them.

"You should know this, Ino," Shikamaru told her. "You're studying, aren't you?"

"Subpoena's easy…" Neji drawled. "It's -"

"A subpoena is an order to appear in court," Ino said, trying to sound intelligent while intoxicated. "… I think."

Below the table, her shoe was being slipped from her feet by Mystery Foot. Who the hell was that anyway?

_Subpoena… Was I right?_

Shikamaru actually _smiled_ and dipped his head. "Good work. When are you going back to uni anyway? You'd probably get a job in Konoha the minute you graduated, hey, Neji?"

"Fuck yes…" the Hyuuga muttered. Nobody heard him though.

"I have my exams in a couple of months, but I applied for leave to help deal with the pressures of your case, Mr. Sabaku."

"… I appreciate that…" Gaara answered. She smiled.

"You can do that?" Sakura asked, groaning. "I could be in med school by now!"

"I didn't know this job was so horrible for you," Neji snapped. She doubled back.

"It's not that…. This job is great. I just, really want to be a doctor."

"I think that's a worthy ambition," Shikamaru said lazily, looking at Ino. "You really have to be clever. Ino mentioned once that you took your job to save up? You're a really smart woman, Sakura. Couldn't you get a scholarship?"

Sakura blushed, and Ino gritted her teeth. That stupid prick. It was _completely _different if she wanted to flirt with other guys. He wasn't allowed to hit on her own… her… friend? That was…

_She's not my friend… is she?_

Of course not.

_But she is._

"Shikamaru?"

He seemed startled she actually looked at him. Blue eyes seemed almost defeated, definitely fed up.

_That foot is still there…._ She acknowledged dimly. _I wonder who that _is.

"… Yeah?"

"You're troublesome."

--------------

At about 12:30pm, the night was almost over. Everyone had had a good time, and were looking forward to a long sleep when they got home, before they'd have to get up and go to work again. Tenten got a call that made her ashen faced for a while, but nobody really noticed. Everyone had drunk their fair share.

"Where'd my phone go?" Ino muttered, searching her purse. "I need to call for a ride home."

"You can share a car with me, if you'd like," Sasori offered. "I can pay."

"I'll drive you, Ino," Sasuke said firmly.

"No…. But then we'd crash into a glacier, and -"

"Don't you dare drink drive with her in the car, Uchiha," Shikamaru snarled. "That's a lawsuit waiting to happen."

"You people are so… tight…" Kankurou said, not for the first time that night. "Just relaaaaaax…." He practically collapsed onto the table, a loud _thunk_ resonating through the whole hall. There were 'Ooooooohs," from the rest of the table.

"Mr. Hyuuga? Are you going to be at the office tomorrow?" Ino asked, propping herself clumsily up on a hand.

"No rest for the wicked," he replied, less than impressed.

"Okay. I'll have Mr. Na- … I'll have Shikamaru's notes printed, and can hand them in tomorrow then. It's my day off, but I'll get over it."

"Fine. Is the night done yet? I'm all socialled out."

True, a lot of people had already started to leave. There were few whole tables left in the whole hall. Kankurou, Gaara and Temari stood up.

"Our taxi's due here any minute," the eldest sibling said. "We'll get going." She smiled at everyone, said it was good to meet them, and waited until her brother did the same. Then she leant and kissed Shikamaru, cupping his face with her hand.

"See you later, yeah?"

"… Yeah…."

Ino could have burst with jealousy, and as she watched the siblings walk away, a spiteful growl on her face, she noticed that Gaara was still putting his shoe back on.

_No way!_

----------------

Neji refused to move until he saw that everything had been cleaned up. Sakura, Ino and Tenten stayed to help. Sasuke had left only at the express command of his blond date. Itachi left without a fight, but gave her a gift before he did so.

"_I'm sorry… Ino…"_

She was in the stairs, saying goodbye. He had requested her company before he left. She'd never seen him apologise before, and it was hard to tell if he was serious or not - his face held very little emotion, after all. He stroked a pale hand down her face, lingered on the bruise, kissed the top of her head, then left without another word.

Hidan was a different story. Although he didn't actually touch her, he certainly tried to, and she _gracefully_ denied his numerous propositions – all of which were R rated in content. Dei left with a smile and a kiss on the hand, followed by a fond hug, all of which made her blush and whine, and Sasori parted insisting that he was allowed to kiss her cheek better. When she let him, she stood on her tiptoes and gave him one in return.

"_Come visit me sometime, Ino."_

With Sasuke it was difficult. As much as she said it was fine, she couldn't help but feel at least a little bit grudging towards him. He was going to just walk out, but she made him come back.

"_Sasuke? What? No goodnight kiss?"_

"_I'm sorry, Ino…"_

"_Honey! It's fine! I'll get heaps of attention this way anyway! I'll see you at work, alright?"_

She kissed him, and he held her tightly, burying his face in her neck before planting a soft kiss on her forehead. Then he walked away without a backward glance.

She didn't even get to see Shikamaru leave. He just slipped out.

"Alright," Tenten announced, putting a hand exhaustedly to her forehead and staggering to the side. "I'm done. It's over. I'm _tired_ and I'm going home. Someone make sure he doesn't pass out on the stairs, please," she said, pointing to Neji.

"I don't need you people to look after me like that," he retorted, trying to stand and then falling back into his chair.

"Of course not, sir," Ino chided, saying goodbye to Tenten and the other pink secretary as they left to share at taxi. "Now, up you get. It's time to go."

She went to sling an arm around him, and lift him out of the chair but he pushed her moodily away.

"No – I can do it."

"Fine," she sighed, waiting for him to do it himself.

…

…

He couldn't.

"Come on, Mr. Hyuuga," she grumbled, supporting him as they made their way out the door. They were almost out into the stairs when he stopped, digging his heels into the floor ad refusing to go a step forward.

"What is it?"

He just pointed upwards, smirking drunkenly.

… _Mistletoe? Fucking _mistletoe

They were both quiet. He managed to stand on his own two feet for a second.

"It's okay sir. We don't have to."

… He stayed quiet.

"Anyway," she started, changing the subject. "I can have those notes for you on your desk in the morning."

She wasn't even sure he could see her properly. Pale eyes were glazed with alcohol, even though they seemed focused on hers.

"… I want… _you_ on my desk in the morning," he told her, and closed the gap between them.

As Ino supported her handsome, completely drunk boss and responded to him in turn, she concluded that the party had been a success.

**

* * *

**

Something's getting in the way 

**Something's just about to break**

**I will try to find my _place_**

**In the Diary of Jane**

* * *

_Squee. New favourite song – among others. Thank _you _Iruka and Kakashi AMV's. Il est tres awesome :D_

_And a sincere apology for you know what. If you don't know, then that's great. But if you do, then please forgive me. There'll never be anything like that again. Ever. –cries in shame-_

_Anyways, I'm not sure about this chapter… It's alright. It _does _have a lot of Ino love. _

_Sometimes, I get questions about how things have come to happen, that other people don't really understand. That's being bad on my part, because I'm making assumptions that people will just get what I mean._

_Obviously not._

_Anyway, its good to be back. I'm truly sorry for the wait. I had a good time at Bush School though. It was great :D_

_Oh! And special love to Steph-uke. Who leaves lovely reviews and is finally reading it – even though it's a heterosexual fic. I love you. Oh! And there was a grammar issue in the last chapter. Troublesome TT I swear I checked it though. Seriously…_

_So who do we want Ino to be with?_

_Quote: Don't bite the hand that holds your allowance in it._

_No more chapter until I beat my amount of reviews for chapter 4. I need fourteen :D_

_Looooooool._


	13. Chapter 13

_Author's Note: I really have nothing to say… stuff sucks…_

_Pairings (which I forgot to add last time): ShikaxIno…_

**

* * *

**

It's been one week since you looked at me 

**  
Cocked your head to the side and said "I'm angry"**

**  
Five days since you laughed at me saying**

"Get that together come back and see me"

* * *

**Chapter … 13. –sigh-**

"So the last plan was pulled off with success?"

Deidara answered his Leader tiredly, resting his head on a hand. Last night had been taxing, for the most part. All that trouble, being nice and kind and all that shit, and he'd still gone home alone?

Well, at least the others hadn't got any…. He would never have lived that down.

"I did it well, yeah."

"You left nothing behind? Nothing at all to suggest it was you that did it?" the man grilled. "Did you clean up the equipment that you used? Make it look like just an accident?"

_Trust him to be thorough…. Trust him to not trust _me _to be thorough._

"As much as I could under the circumstances," the blond replied, narrowing his eyes at a young man halfway down the long table the whole of the Akatsuki base. The black-haired nuisance, better known as Tobi, was drumming his fingers restlessly on the grey surface, and half the people present were still suffering from an unwanted hangover from the night before.

"Under the circumstances?"

"Blowing up a car rarely looks like a mistake. Plus; people usually swarm all over it before I have a chance to get rid of everything."

"I cut the brakes though," Sasori said calmly. "If you did your job right, it could easily be identified as a tragic side effect of a car accident."

"I did my job just fine," the blond snarled at his partner. "I saw the crash myself. Very tragic - it looked good. I wasn't first on the scene, but I was third or fourth. The others tried to get those agents out, and I got rid of all that I could."

"Did anyone survive?"

Deidara laughed, a sound bordering on the insane. Sasori's face was slack with a contented smirk.

"They were blown to bits."

"It may be worth our time, hanging around Konoha," a woman's voice said softly. The men she controlled all turned towards the head of the table, straining their eyes in the dark to try and see her. Konan's blue hair was just visible in the dimness. Her partner's eyes glinted as they shifted towards her.

"… Maybe it will."

-------------------

_I am never, _ever_, drinking again._

It felt like the whole world was out to get Ino that morning. It was a Saturday, and she was as pissed off as she'd be mid-week - when she'd been through crap and still had crap to go.

That morning she had started off trying to look professional - donning a white blouse and deep cut black vest – then had given up halfway, and just thrown on a pair of jeans to go with it. Her favourite pair of sunglasses, she decided, would _not_ leave her face at all that day. Not until she was safe in her apartment, _away_ from everyone else. It was lucky she had the day off. She just had some things to drop off to…

…

…

To Neji.

_I can be mature about this. He was completely smashed when I stuffed him inside that limo and sent him away. I doubt he even remembers any of it._

So, all she needed to do was pretend like nothing happened. Nothing at all. That way it was up to him to decide what the next course of action would be.

She clapped a hand to her aching head.

Why, oh why did she drink? It always ended up in chaos.

At least this time it was just her playboy high boss, who probably didn't give a shit about it anyway – which was good, really. _And_ this time she was single. That was always a plus. Besides, even if she'd shown interest in other people, city life rarely supported monogamy. Exclusive dating was… uncommon. There were no strings attached, until you actually received the title 'girlfriend'.

But really, kissing other men when she insisted she was harping after one in particular sort of seemed kind of…

_Urgh. My head hurts too much to think about this. I just liked the attention, is all… I didn't… Fuck, I don't care! Get in, get out. The less anyone sees of me like this the better._

She walked as softly as she could – moving quickly jolted knives through her head – through the front door, and the ran, physically _ran_ away from everyone's favourite overenthusiastic security guard roaring 'good mornings' and coffee orders as he sprinted to the shop across the road. She collapsed on the floor of the elevator, moaning complaints and gripping her head like it was going to explode.

A shaking hand reached upwards and smashed the number 12 on the floor layout, and Ino withdrew back into her corner.

--------------

"What the hell are you doing?"

It may have seemed impossible, but Miss Yamanaka curled up even tighter into a ball than she had before. She didn't want to look up and meet the face of Kiba under _any _circumstances. He was probably going to eat her. Eat her with those big, oversized canines of his. Rip her apart and use her fingernails for toothpicks. He probably hated her like nothing else.

She didn't answer him.

"Right. Whatever."

There was a tense silence in the elevator, and the pleasant music playing in the background made them both cringe.

"Come on. Get up. Your papers are all over the floor. Your boss'll get pissed."

She lifted her head slightly to look at his hand, but didn't make a move to take it.

"Where are you going, anyway?" she muttered. "You don't have anything to do with the upper floors."

"One of my dogs is at the vet on the seventh floor. Have you ever even _been_ on the middle levels?"

"Hospitals creep me out."

"Hm," he sighed, sticking his hand back into his heavy jacket's pocket.

The doors opened with a _ping,_ and Kiba stepped out without a backwards glance.

_He haaaates meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…._

-------------

Just before she reached the twelfth floor, the elevator stopped on the one below. Ino gathered her papers and files for Neji together, holding them haphazardly and leaving no room to possibly carry anything else.

"Hn! EE-no, c'n you take th's?"

Tenten – also sporting a pair of very expensive sunglasses - was holding papers everywhere possible, including in her elbows, in her hands, trapped between her collarbone and her neck, and in her mouth. She saw Ino's predicament and tipped her head upwards slightly, shoving the papers into the blond woman's mouth.

"Thanks! I really need to rush to a meeting with one of Neji's clients. He's too hung over to go himself. Did you _see_ him last night? Oh my God…"

Ino stepped out as the doors closed on Tenten. She had to give those stupid papers to someone else! It was hardly dignified for her to go traipsing into Neji's office with files in her _mouth_. She just needed to pass them over to someone else.

_There's Sasuke! He'll help me! Stupid asshole. He owes me dammit. He _better _help me… Ooh! He's got breakfast! Oh, God… Drool. I'm starving._

_Huh… He's wearing sunglasses too…_

She attempted to call out his name as he spoke to Sakura and left her in a smitten heap while he turned to go back to his office, but, like Tenten, her word's were a bit… messy.

"Sasky! Sasky, c'me he-re. J'st… St'nd st'll 'n' my mouwf…"

Sakura looked ready to kill as Ino sprinted towards him, pushed herself onto her tiptoes and launched herself towards his mouth, shoving roughly forty pages of paper past his lips and jamming it between his teeth.

_Oh… he was already… eating… - oh well! He'll manage!_

"Ino. Can you come here for a second?"

"Yes, sir!" she called, a little too exuberantly for everyone else on the floor. Even Shikamaru was wearing sunnies. Now, that was a worry.

Sasuke stared at her weirdly as she walked off towards her boss' office. What the fuck was he meant to do with these things now?

-------------

"Sorry, sir, I have to make this quick. I'm meant to hand this stuff into Neji," Ino said brightly, looking more at his ear than any other part of him. If she looked into his eyes while in this kind of mood, strange things would start happening.

"Neji?"

She wasn't looking at the single arched eyebrow, barely able to be seen above the three hundred dollar pair of sunglasses. No way.

"Since when were you on such familiar terms with the Hyuuga?"

As he waited for a reply, Ino was having some internal battle. Some sudden questioning of why she had to keep lying to everyone. Maybe it was because lies take effort to maintain, and crowded your head with badness. And hers was already full of mind-destroying _pain_.

"… Since he snogged me last night under the mistletoe."

Well. That couldn't have gotten any more direct. Ino laughed madly in her head. The look on his face was _priceless_! He took off his glasses, as if they were clouding his vision. Dark brown eyes were judgmental… and rimmed completely in red.

"… Why?"

Ino sighed, and removed her glasses too – so much for her earlier promise. Why not be honest? Yes. Let's be honest. She had a lot of people she could possibly fall back on. It would be messy, though, letting Sasuke down. Kiba already hated her, so that was fine. She had a guilty sort of thought about rejecting Sasori – who had been nothing but a gentleman – but he'd get over it, right?

_So now comes the crunch time…_

What to do? Surely rejection couldn't be any more painful than how her head was feeling right now. That was just ungodly. She'd probably feel better when she had closure on the whole stupid situation anyway. But did he have a girlfriend? Were he and Temari dating exclusively?

Surely not. She'd have known!

Okay, so that would be fine… ish. But what about everyone else? What about how damn _awkward_ it would be around the office?

_Who the hell am I kidding? It doesn't get any more tense with him! I smile, he ignores me, Sasuke glares, Sakura cries in a corner, Neji sits back and watches the show, and Tenten laughs at us all!_

"… Well…"

"Yes?"

"I kissed Neji because…"

"You were shit-faced?"

She flinched and pouted. "Well, yeah… but -"

"But what, Ino?" he pressed, crossing his arms and fighting the urge to rub aching eyes. Fuck. His head felt like it was being ripped apart.

"Well…. You'd already left…."

---------------

"Sak'ra. Who're these m'nt t' go to?" the youngest Uchiha asked, bending towards his fawning secretary and tilting his head slightly so that she could read the name at the bottom of the page.

"Do you want to give that to me?" she asked, hoping to get a scene like the one with her blond rival beforehand. She picked up a stack of things. "My hands are full, so…"

"No. J'st t'll me who 't's for."

Sakura's face fell, defeated, and she leant forward to examine the first sheet.

"Shikamaru Nara, sir."

"Right…."

----------------

"I'm sorry…. What?"

For someone who was considered a genius, Shikamaru could be so irritatingly dense.

"You had already left."

She said it slowly, directly, as if speaking to a small – stupid – child. He just stared at her, arms now coming loose from their folded position across his chest to hang limply at his sides. His mouth was open, gobsmacked. She held his gaze, anxious, but trying not to care.

"You kissed Neji, because… I wasn't there… anymore?"

_Noooo! He's staring at me weird!_

Ino looked at him blankly. There was a slight CRUSHING feeling in her chest.

So. Rejection, huh? How's that working out for you, then?

In Ino's mind, because he had not immediately jumped her after a love confession that had been on the waiting list for some _ten months_ now, it meant he obviously wasn't interested.

"Well. Um. I need to get this stuff… to Neji – Mr. Hyuuga."

He didn't say anything. Still staring.

Ho hum.

She turned to go, noting dramatically the symbolism of what would happen when she closed the door. The door would be closed on their relationship forever. It would separate them completely. He's a lawyer, she's a goddamn secretary. It was never meant to be. The door knew that. But why had it been so cruel? Why did it open so nicely, so _well_ for her when he needed help in his office? Why did it let her in when ultimately, it was just going to slam behind her mercilessly every time she walked away?

Angst!

_I hate you, door. I _hate _you. I've never hated a door. But I hate you. I hate your texture and your height and your weight and the way you move. I hate everything about you. I'll never forgive you. Not _ever_, and - oh my fucking God I'm talking to a fucking _door

As she reached out for the handle, it suddenly opened inwards. There Sasuke stood, notes in his mouth, lunch in his hands.

"It's my turn again, is it?" she asked glumly. His lips quirked slightly, and his head moved towards hers. Instead though, of letting her take the other side of the paper, he made it so she had to grab onto the space right next to the one his mouth was occupying. It resulted in a quick little sideways kiss, not at all unpleasant – if you weren't feeling more crushed than you would under a steamroller.

_Oh, Sasuke… Don't even bother giving him that look. He doesn't care anyway. Didn't you know? You're such a dear. I thought that at the start you were working well with my plan. But things didn't turn out the way I wanted. I suppose that was sort of cruel… wasn't it? I deserve this. I get that._

He gave her a wink and returned to his own office.

Ino felt like a dog with a bone. A useless, pained, tired, puffy-eyed _bitch_ that wasn't fit to do anything but carry papers for the alpha male. Why bother? Why bother doing _anything_? The documents, still slightly damp and tasting like ham and cheese from Sasuke's mouth, hang listlessly between her lips. They were going to drop soon.

_Oh… who gives a fuck._

"Are those for me?"

A kind voice. Long-fingered hands reaching for spit-covered (oops) papers. Ino opened her mouth slightly, and let her lazy ass boss start to remove them.

"I dunno. Tenten passed them on."

"Were they in her mouth too?" he asked, looking suspiciously at what he had just taken, and wondering who else had managed to put their spit all over it.

"Yeah."

The stack of paper was still being slid gently from her mouth. Paper cuts on the lip or gums would not be nice. In fact, that would really, really suck.

"Okay… I'm just gonna take this and -"

In one smooth movement, he had thrown the documents on the floor, grabbed a startled Ino around the waist, slammed her on the desk, and proceeded to kiss her senseless.

**

* * *

**

Five days since I laughed at you and said 

**  
"You just did just what I thought you were gonna do"**

**  
Three days since the living room**

**  
We realized we're both to blame,**

**But what could we do?**

* * *

_If you don't know the name of this song… I will cut my wrists right here…_

_I have no quotes. Except for maybe life sucks and then you die… This chapter probably doesnt deserve reviews at all. -forlorn sigh- but thank you for those who helped me beat chapter 4's record... I appreciate it..._


	14. Chapter 14

_Author's Note: Sooo, how are we? Me? I'm fine. Except I've got a French test tomorrow – on my BIRTHDAY – and have lost my French text book so that I can't… _actually _study for it! What's with that?_

_Party yesterday was fun though. My presents were great :D_

_Pairings: SasuSaku (ish. SasuSaku haters, review, and I'll answer, and explain _everything _to you. Or, I could tell you now, that ultimately the person you hate will be in massive amounts of PAIN), ShikaIno, implied NejiIno_

**

* * *

**

You're so _gorgeous_

**I'd do anything**

**Kiss you from your feet to where your head begins**

**You're so _perfect_**

**You're so right as rain**

**You make me, make me, make me hungry again**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

Sakura's heart fell as Sasuke returned from Shikamaru's office, smirking and chewing his bottom lip contentedly.

Through a gap in the door, she had seen the quick kiss he had shared with that stupid blond whore. Wasn't she meant to be after Shikamaru anyway? What's with the sudden closeness to Sasuke anyway? The way things were going, at least she wouldn't lose the bet. Ino had to kiss _Shikamaru_ in front of her if Sakura was going to resign, and that hadn't exactly happened yet.

_Sasuke…. Why her? What does she have that I don't have?_

Sakura had considered starving herself, taking leave from work to make him miss her, and getting into relationships with other men to get him to say more than just his casual 'hn' to her every morning, but everyone was too busy mooning after _Ino Yamanaka_ to care. And there was the fact that she had caved on the first day of the starvation plan because of the warm chocolate brownies that Lee had given her.

_He's… sweet…_

Perhaps it would be easier to make peace with the woman. But… that really… wouldn't work, would it? Obviously the rivalry was childish, but Sakura had her pride. She knew, that if it were to definitely end, then one of them would have to win. Even if they called it quits, the terrifying egos that housed in both of them wouldn't keep quiet for very long, and everything would go back to how it was.

Stupid, really.

But maybe it was worth a try?

…

…

Or… _maybe_ she could try and seduce _Shikamaru_. If he didn't respond at first, maybe she could just explain what that he would be helping her out. _Surely_ if Sasuke saw that his own secretary had taken the side of his genius rival she'd get a rise out of him….

Right! Now was the time! She'd be meaning to get proactive anyway. She'd just go in and start flirting. Oh, but she was a little out of practice….

_This should be interesting_, she thought, standing and approaching his office door.

Yeah, it would be fine. All she had to do was –

…

…

_Oh my God._

She shut the door hurriedly, eyes widening behind her sunglasses. They weren't doing _anything_ above PG, but it was still… pretty… enthusiastic… and now she would have to quit her job…. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, _fuck!_

But Ino didn't know she'd seen them. Maybe this was just a one off?

…

Agh…. Who was she kidding. She'd lost. She'd failed.

…

_But…_

Maybe, just maybe, if she showed Sasuke, he could see how much of a slut she was. Maybe he would turn to _her_ for comfort: the woman who'd catered to his every need for almost a whole year, who listened to his every word as though her life depended on it, the woman who would _drag him to hell and back _if she thought it was in his best interest.

Just maybe.

"Mr. Uchiha! Sir? Sir!"

Sasuke, who had been sorting some theories for a case out with a man further down the office, raised his head and looked calmly her way. At her insistent look he scowled, straightened up and walked sulkily towards her, sliding the fine sunglasses from in front of his eyes and holding them at his side.

"What is it?"

"You need to go and see Mr. Nara," she told him, silently giggling over Sasuke's red-rimmed eyes. "Right away."

He looked at her for a while, head tilted slightly back in defiance.

"I don't want to."

"But…. Sir. You need to," Sakura insisted, clasping her hands together and pouting.

"No. I don't. I can do it later."

"It's about the Sabaku case."

"_Later_, Sakura."

"Sir, he really wants to look over his notes with you."

"We already did that."

"Well," Sakura sighed, getting extremely pissed off with the stubbornness of her pretty boss. "He wants to do it _again_."

Sasuke lifted his lip slightly, and his eyes narrowed. "Sakura, for the last freakin' time. _No_. I don't need to do it now. I can do it later. He can _surely_ manage without me for at least twenty more minutes and -"

Sakura huffed and grabbed his arm, tugging him with a sudden wave of monster strength over to Shikamaru's office and opened the door.

_I'll do it my FUCKING self then!_

"Look! Look at them! Do you really think she deserves you!" she whispered fiercely, grip tight on the sleeve of his grey suit. His eyes widened, he stared, and he shut the door slowly, deliberately and quietly, taking a step back.

Sakura was surprised by the look on his face. He seemed… to be taking it pretty hard. His fists were clenched at his sides. There was a loud, sickening crunch as his five hundred dollar sunglasses snapped in his hands. He was looking at the door as if he could see what lay behind it, and didn't want to believe it. His eyes were wide, almost pleading, as he looked blindly into the face of his pink-haired secretary.

"Mr. Uchiha? Sasuke?"

He ignored her, wrenched his sleeve from her grasp and turned, stalking back towards the sanctuary of his office. Sakura, now half in tears, called after him.

"Dammit, Sasuke! You don't need her! Just listen to me!"

He stopped, hand on the door handle, but didn't look at her.

"Why do you even do this to yourself! I _love_ you! I fucking _love_ you! And you go after her! She's been in love with Shikamaru the whole time she was with you! I can't believe you didn't see it!"

She was almost crying. Her voice wavered slightly. Sasuke's jaw clenched.

"She was using you to get to him, Sasuke! _Using_ you! That's all you are to her! It doesn't matter how you feel, she doesn't think you're any more than a good-looking tool to help win a stupid bet!"

She ran towards him, terrified he wasn't getting the message, and that he was blocking her out. She ran in front of him, because he refused to turn around, and grabbed the collar of his suit.

"I _love_ you."

Tears streaming down her face, grip shaking on his expensive clothes, Sakura wished he would say something. He looked to be thinking deeply, staring straight into jade green eyes.

Finally, he opened his mouth to speak.

"…. You want me," he murmured, expression not changing.

"Yes! I want you…" she sobbed softly, stepping closer. "I want you."

She yelped as he grabbed her roughly around the waist, stepped forward, pushed her against the door, and tried to release every single bit of hurt onto her body and lips.

-------------

…

…

_Where's Ino?_

Neji tapped idly at the swinging bird ornament Tenten had bought him for his birthday that year, trying to ignore his _deadly_ headache. That pretty blond girl was meant to be here by now.

Neji closed his eyes wearily behind his designer sunnies. He'd gone to a party, yet woken up alone? Surely, _surely_ he should have at least bagged _something_.

_Urgh… Everything is a _blur…

Well. Sucks to be him.

…

But seriously! He'd been waiting for this work for at least a week. Ino had had to take it home to try and dissect the atrocity that was Shikamaru Nara's handwriting, so it would all be in that neat, charming script that Neji loved to read. Seriously. He could look at that all day.

…

_I'm bored._

…

She was taking too long. She was taking too long and his Soaps wouldn't start for another hour. She had a day off… he wasn't doing anything. Maybe they could watch '_I'll Love You Forever – Etcetera_' together. And. You know. If they happened to get influenced by hardcore love affairs on their mutually favourite show, then he really couldn't be held responsible for his actions, right?

He sighed, stretching out across his desk. How come she wasn't fawning at his feet anyway? That's what usually happened with women all over the city. He usually just had to mention his _name_ and they would bombard him with enthusiastic proposals of marriage.

Gold Diggers.

But Neji found he quite liked some of the good ol' GD's. They were willing to do a lot of… interesting things. Morally corrupt themselves, they couldn't complain if he flushed their pet fish and gave their diamond earrings to charity funds – even if sometimes it was towards his own company. Well. They couldn't if they wanted his money. Occasionally, there'd be one that'd keep him on his toes, someone who didn't blindly accept everything he said… and there _was_ that _one_ woman who's yappy little shaved rat – or Chihuahua. Whatever – didn't _actually_ fit down the toilet. She was _sort_ _of_ cool…. Sometimes.

…

…

Screw this. _He_ was going to look for _her._

-----------

As Neji ambled distractedly towards the middle of the eleventh floor, where his best lawyers lived, he wondered why the hell the architect had designed his precious office building to be really long, instead of really tall. He had to walk so _far_, and his head hurt so much…. What was with this?

Why the fuck did he have to walk twenty kilometres to find someone who was meant to _come to him_?

_Maybe I can get someone else to do it,_ the lazy side of him thought.

_That defeats most of the purpose of coming here,_ his other side lectured. His headache quickly squashed the Voice of Reason.

_God I hate that guy._

_I know!_

_So what was I - woah!_

Neji stared like a stunned mullet at one of his top lawyers molesting his secretary up against the wall. He stood and watched for a while – both of them were completely _oblivious_ to his presence – and was suddenly grabbed from behind.

"Neji! My leader! My captain! Miss Haruno has ultimately chosen another male!"

_Just. Fucking. Kill me!_

"Not you again…."

Lee had tears streaming down his cheeks, and was wailing in Neji's ear, having completely engulfed him in a bone-crushing bear hug.

"You're breaking my head…."

Lee threw himself away from the high boss suddenly, racing like a demon towards the elevator at the other end of the floor. His legs were a blur he moved so fast. Still, Sasuke and Sakura continued their… session… against the wall.

Neji grimaced as Sakura's wrists were pinned above her head. The watch she was wearing cracked on the surface of the wall.

_Oooookay…. Leaving you now…_

Neji inched away from the two, reaching out a hand for the handle of Shikamaru's office. Surely, if Ino wasn't at her desk, then she'd be in there.

He opened the door –

…

…

And closed it again.

So _why_ was everyone getting some but him? What was with this?

"Tenten! Tenteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!"

Neji Hyuuga stormed down the floor, screaming her name.

**

* * *

**

So why can't I be you?

* * *

_The Cure is cool… Spiderman… -drools-_

_Um. ANYWAY. Let's stay on the heterosexual theme, shall we?_

_Thank you to everyone who's reviewed! I cant believe I have 115! –hugs everyone- You can have a slice of my birthday cake:D_

_I got 17 reviews for last chapter! Le gasp!_

_Anyway _

_Quote: Why on Earth would I want carrots when I feel like rolled oats? -outrage-_


	15. Chapter 15

_Author's Note: Well, well. Long time no see -is watching Young and the Restless on her day off, sitting in her pyjamas and dressing gown on a Friday._

_Heh._

_Now. I apologise for the disgusting amount of regularity that I seem to be posting – but this is ARC 2. Wee! So yeah. I've written the first couple of chapters in preparation for when my exams start coming. –cries-_

_Anyway Onwards, and if I still actually have anyone reading, then reviews would be appreciated._

_Pairings: ShikaxIno. None others, really_

**

* * *

**

Love

**Certain till death do us part**

**Hope**

**Like drifting in the dark**

* * *

**Chapter 1. Arc 2.**

Ino was crying.

Ino was crying so hard she could barely breathe. With each greedy, strained gasp for air her chest heaved and shook violently. Tears streamed down her cheeks, wetting her boyfriend's arm and earning more than just a couple of glances.

"Ino… it's really not that bad, you know…."

She released an animalistic, keening wail, let him go, and fled towards the elevator.

Shikamaru followed her at his own pace, trying to ignore everyone else that saw fit to look at him. He managed to catch Ino just as she pushed the 'doors closed' button, and could do nothing but raise an eyebrow as she proceeded to flood the elevator with even more tears.

And all this over having to come to work on Boxing Day?

_Troublesome_.

* * *

Ino walked mournfully through the eleventh floor building, ruefully noting that most of the other lawyers that were usually at work weren't there at all.

_This is weird… It's so empty…._

She sat at her desk and booted up her computer, extracting a Christmas picture of her and Shikamaru from her handbag and putting it cheerily on one of the glass platforms that made up her work surface. Ino grinned, remembering Christmas morning in his apartment, and greeted Sakura, who was in her familiar spot across from her, typing madly and moving the mouse so fast Ino couldn't track it properly with her eyes.

"How was your Christmas?" the blonde asked cheerily. The picture had brightened up her day considerably… and there was the fact that even if Ino _did_ complain and chuck a tantrum then Sakura would probably just ignore her anyway.

"It was fine."

The rosette secretary's voice was dull and full of scathe. Ino pouted, but read the signal loud and clear and backed off.

_Where's Shikamaru anyway?_

The lazy bastard still hadn't reached the eleventh floor yet. Surely he should have been here already…. She focused her attention on the screen in front of her, until one very unlucky man caught her eye

"Neji! Neji Hyuuga! I have a bone to pick with you!"

The high boss froze and looked about ready to pull a gun and shoot himself. He'd been trying to sneak inconspicuously past both women – more specifically the holiday-loving one – while their heads were down and they were working…

Mission failed.

"What is it, Ino?"

"How could you have brought me to work, sir? How could you?" she shouted at him, tears in her eyes as she slumped over the desk. Neji's eyes widened, and he wheeled around to look at Sakura.

'What do I do?' he mouthed. She shot him a dark look and refused to answer.

Now, why did everyone hate him today? Sure, it _was_ Boxing Day and they had to come to work, but _he_ had to as well. It's not like the poor little suckers had lives to go home to _anyway_.

_Hmm…_

Judging by Sakura's mood, the consequences of bearing herself to Sasuke were starting to take effect. Maybe he should… comfort her… in her time of need….

Or would that be a little bit too low?

Yeah… probably.

"Where's Shikamaru?" he asked, using her boyfriend's name as a distraction that actually worked quite well.

_And where the fuck is Tenten? I see her talk to an older, even more sparkly version of Lee for _two minutes_ and then she just disappears…_

Ino answered curiously. "I don't know… he was with me in the foyer…."

"So has he gone to get your new escorts then?"

"What?"

Neji sighed. Did _no one _listen to him anymore? He'd sent memos to everyone no less than five days ago. He had upped office security so that everyone on the tenth, eleventh and of course, the twelfth floor had their own personal team of Konoha agents to look after them. Ino was meant to be meeting her team now.

He told her, and she looked appalled.

"Is my father one of those agents?"

Now it was Neji's turn to question her. "What do you mean?"

"Inoichi Yamanaka. He's an agent for the Konoha firm too. Will he be looking after me?"

The Hyuuga high boss shrugged. "I don't know. I told them to choose the best."

"My father is the best!" she shot, standing up and glaring. Ino loved her beloved Daddy. In her eyes there was no one else more suited to protecting her than he was.

Neji blinked. Touchy subject. Oops.

"I'm… sure he is," he said carefully, feeling fragile. She'd been happy, started to cry, shouted, yelled, and now she was getting all defensive, all in the space of two minutes.

"Whatever. Where do I have to go?" she asked, glaring at him after the questioning of Daddy's almighty power. Ino got to her feet as he told her to go to the fourth floor, and stalked moodily towards the elevator.

* * *

A covered face, a lopsided bandana, and a low sigh.

"I can't believe we're on babysitting duty."

Tanned skin, an unimpressed stare, and the scratching of a scar.

"It's what the Chief ordered. Get over it."

A puff of cigarette smoke, a clearing of the throat, and a fond look.

"You two argue like an old married couple."

Black curls, full curves, and womanly wiles.

"Now, now. Don't tease."

The four of them sighed simultaneously, waiting for their designated charges to arrive already.

Due to Kakashi's sorry lack of punctuality, he had actually missed the two people he was protecting, _and_ the common officer that he was going to be working with. So he had to wait until the message got through to them again.

Asuma had already been addressed by _three_ different men, receiving warnings from Inoichi Yamanaka – an agent specialising in interrogation, who conducted mind games as a hobby – as well as a nonchalant wave from Shikaku Nara – a strategic genius and the only one that managed to keep the crazy blond under control – and a clap on the back from Chouza Akimichi – a friendly looking man by all accounts, who worked in the weapons armoury, concocting gun designs – real heavy duty stuff. Apparently, Asuma had been assigned to protect their only children.

Kurenai was there to meet _everyone_. She, Kiba and Shino were assigned to patrol duty – digging up information and keeping an eye out for all parties involved. It was their job to focus on the _attackers_, instead of just the ones being attacked, although there was the possibility of working in a tag team with Asuma as well.

Iruka was there for organisation and natural bonding reasons. He got along with everyone – a social skill by which some of the others in the group were lacking completely. It was his job to keep everybody _happy_, and to keep up the good side of the ANBU force….

Yes. Okay. He was there to make sure no one – especially Kakashi – didn't get a little too overenthusiastic, and rip off anyone's head…. More than ever if they were dealing with _lawyers_.

"Where's Gai? Why isn't he here?" Kakashi complained to the shorter man, crossing his arms and pouting – even though you couldn't see it. Iruka turned on him with a snap.

"_He _was here early. _He _already has his charge. _He_ is already working with Lee to protect Neji Hyuuga and his secretary. _He_ was -"

"Okay! Fine!" the silver-haired man whined. "You're so mean to me sometimes, you know?"

Iruka shot him a glare, which turned into a smile as soon as two men left the elevator and started towards them.

"Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara?" Iruka asked, smiling welcomingly.

"Yeah."

"I'm Iruka. This is Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma," he told them, pointing to each individual in turn. "Gai Maito is already upstairs, attending to Mr. Hyuuga and his secretary."

Shikamaru nodded uncaringly. Kurenai smiled at the resemblance between him and his father.

"What's this all about?" asked Chouji. "I'm a cook across the road, what do I have to do with any of this?"

"Your restaurant is the most popular for the lawyers at this firm, the policemen on _this_ floor and the levels below us, and for the doctors and vets above. I believe you share some brand of familiarity with most of your customers – more so your regulars."

Chouji nodded, understanding. True, nobody seemed to notice the chef and his waiters when they were talking about things they shouldn't. After all, his staff were trained not to be noticed. Get in, get out, and not be seen in the time in between.

Did not being seen mean you were deaf though?

Not so much.

"Does this mean I will have to leave my business?" he asked, ignoring Shikamaru's bored-out-of-his-brain stare. Honestly, they'd been friends since childhood, and he hadn't gotten any less lazy.

The other ANBU agents let Iruka answer it. The Akimichis were known to be fiercely protective of the things they loved, and despite their gentle exterior, could turn vicious without too much provocation. Hopefully he'd understand.

"…Perhaps," the tanned academy teacher frowned. "But maybe we can change things so that Kurenai and her team can set up base in your restaurant, so that you won't have to leave. Otherwise, you might have to check with Mr. Hyuuga to see if you could set up shop over here."

Chouji crossed his arms, thinking.

"Do either of you know where Ino Yamanaka is?" Iruka asked as Kakashi and Kurenai started talking amongst themselves behind him. He was glad that Asuma was at least showing some interest in the people he had been assigned to protect with his life.

"No. Do you, Shikamaru?"

Chouji had become quite familiar with Ino in the last month. Even though he was quietly sceptical at first, having seen her and Kiba to start off with, he accepted it on her and Shikamaru's mutual reassurance. He thought she suited Shikamaru well. She reminded him of the Nara boy's mother.

"I think she went onto one of the above floors…" he drawled. "Forgot, I think…."

"You couldn't have reminded her?" Chouji scoffed, pained. Kakashi and Kurenai looked up at the possibility of an argument.

"She was distraught because she had to come into work today. I thought it'd be better to just let her run around and tire herself out."

"That's the way to do it," Kakashi agreed. Kurenai promptly slapped him over the back of the head, much to a chuckling Asuma's amusement.

"No wonder you have nothing to come home to every night except for those horrible books," she snapped. "With that attitude, you're going to die slow, cold and alone."

"I've been telling him that for years," Iruka nodded, before shaking his head slightly and tuning back into the conversation. "Alright. Do you guys need to be somewhere urgently, or do you have a bit of time to spare?"

"We'll wait," Chouji said. He doubted Shikamaru would care at all.

"Good. Ah! Kakashi, your people are back!"

The whole room seemed to take on a different demeanour as Naruto bounced through the fourth floor, being greeted and high-fived at every possible turn. He held tightly to Sasuke's arm as he pulled him through the building, earning harsh whispers from some of the less intelligent officers – who, consequently, were shut up by a prompt snarl from the blond and a dark leer from the lawyer.

"Yo."

Sasuke took one, nostalgia-caked look at his old trainer – the freak with the gravity-defying silver hair, the high-necked, sleeveless black shirts, the black bandana slung across one eye, the semi-psychotic, social-retarded _pervert_ whose favourite pastime was to annoy the people around him when he didn't have a certain violent orange book with him – and stopped dead in his tracks.

"No. Not him."

"What's wrong with me?"

Iruka restrained himself from answering the very open question, and watched with amusement as the ANBU agent chewed the fabric of his high-necked shirt.

"You're a fucking psycho."

"Isn't that more of a reason to like me? Better _liking_ the psycho, being nice to him and having him like you back, than being on the team _against_ him, right?"

Sasuke was going to something about _not_ being (batting!) on the same team as him – _ever_ – but was cut off by the sound of irritated yelling as someone raced past the police desks in high heeled shoes that clacked against the floor.

"Sorry I'm late, guys. Shikamaru Nara! Why didn't you tell me I had to come down here in the first place? Hey. Why are you two here? What's the point of all this anyway? Neji said we were beefing up security, but he didn't really tell me why. Do you know sir?" she asked Iruka, who seemed mostly in control of the situation. Asuma had already pinned her as Ino Yamanaka – who else could she be? Her father spoke just like she did. He looked her over briefly, performing a quick character profile.

_Loud._

"Yes, we're just waiting for one more now," Iruka smiled at her. "But for now, let me introduce you to the man that will be one of your personal guards. This is Asuma Sarutobi."

Ino looked up at the smoking man and grinned. He smiled lazily back.

"I'm Ino Yamanaka."

"It's good to meet you."

In Ino's mind, he had definitely passed. There was just something about him that seemed to make him trustworthy. He definitely looked more sane than that _other_ guy….

_Hmm… One-Eye's hiding his face too. Maybe him and Kakuzu could be friends?_

"_One_ of my personal guards?" she asked, remembering a detail and feeling important.

Kurenai nodded. "Yeah. We can't have only one person to look after three at one time, so people from my team will be taking turns working as his partner."

Ino nodded.

"Oi. Iruka. How come Asuma gets a girl?" Kakashi whined, pawing at the man's shoulder and tugging insistently on his hair. "Where's mine? Don't I have another one?"

"Sakura Haruno, yes," the instructor glared. He didn't want to appear as a character witness if that man went to court for sexual harassment… again. It was pretty embarrassing and reputation-destroying to have the whole legal system understand that your best friend was a nasty old molester.

"Sakura's still upstairs," Ino told him, snapping him out of his somewhat pessimistic thoughts. "She was working on something for Sa -" she looked up at Sasuke while speaking, only to meet the destructive snarl that was set across his face. "… For Mr. Uchiha," she finished softly, ducking her head. Shikamaru glanced at her, frowning.

"Kakashi, maybe you can go and get -"

"What?!"

Everyone except Iruka, Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai either ducked or jumped as Gai Maito made his way uproariously onto the scene.

"Iruka! Passionate worker and dedicated officer! How could you set a mission for my Rival without giving me an equal share of knowledge? Is this a declaration of the severing of youthful bonds of friendship?!"

Iruka scratched his scar tiredly. "No…. He probably couldn't do it anyway, Gai." He took up a stance – super secretive – and whispered in the wild man's ear. "Your mission, Gai Maito, is to collect one Sakura Haruno from floor eleven of -"

Iruka didn't have to finish his sentence. Gai was off like a sparkly, green bat out of hell.

* * *

Iruka sat at the head of the table, Asuma and Kurenai to his left, Kakashi and Gai to his right. He shuffled the papers in his hands and addressed the people that sat before him.

"On the 19th of December, a group of six Konoha agents were killed in a suspicious car accident," he started, noting carefully the reactions on each person's face.

"Were they the people meant to do the trivia for the Christmas party?" Ino asked, thinking about the phone call that Tenten had gotten at the end of the night.

"Yes, Ino, they were. We have reason to believe our agency is being targeted by a group of killers, bent on destabilising the justice system in this city community. If there are any other motives behind such actions, they are unknown to us."

"So why should restrictions be based on our lives?" Sasuke asked coldly.

"Why do_ I_ get the asshole?" Kakashi grumbled. Iruka hit him sharply across the face, with a hushed "You're being rude!" and answered Sasuke's question.

"It won't be too bad. Your privacy will be held in the highest respect, Mr. Uchiha. However, you must understand that this is in your best interest. Kakashi and Naruto here will do their utmost to save you and Miss Haruno from any danger you may face. Understand that these men would readily give their lives for you, and I will ask you only for civility and cooperation in return. Just remember that this arrangement is only temporary, until the culprit or culprits are found."

Sasuke sat back in his chair as Gai started to sparkle in reaction to Iruka's speech.

Oh, he had something of an idea about who could be targeting the police force. Itachi Uchiha had been involved in murder for a long time, it would make sense he'd want Sasuke and other officers of the law gone. He'd always been a solo soul though, so he may just be an acquaintance of the group. Ally would be stretching it. Sasuke knew he was close to finally tracking his older brother down. His information could prove useful for this case.

It could prove more useful than anything a hundred Shikamaru Naras could put together.

He shot a look at the rosette sitting next to him. She seemed thinner. Her hair wasn't as bright. She wasn't smiling, and neither did she seem upset by the current situation.

He didn't like to do this to her. She didn't deserve it. If she really loved him like she said, he should, at the most, have rejected her if he did not feel the same. Now she was stuck in the background until he needed a good looking date, or some sort of stress-relief.

No. She didn't deserve it.

But Shikamaru didn't deserve Ino.

**

* * *

**

I gave my life to save her

**The ocean turned to red**

* * *

_Oh! And just in case you were wondering. It's Kakashi Iruka friendship … I just think slightly hyperactive Kakashi is amusing…. It's sort of like Kyouya and Tamaki. Ish. Look, I've been watching Ouran lately, okay?_

_Okay._

_Song is The Navy Song by Billy Talent. I love it :3 And omg! The stupid seperating lines didnt work in the last chapter! -is annoyed- so it all ran onto each other. disgusting. I apologise. The filter slaughtered them._

_Quote: You can hire a lawyer's outrage C--__ Oh, but it's so true! –loves lawyerness-_

_Alright. This is really pissing me off. i can't use the little like... dash (-) lines. It wont let me! It DELETES THEM AND THE SCENES ARE ALL CONJOINED! -hates like semtex- that. is so. annoying. I apologise if I missed some. I think it keeps deleting my ...'s as well. No! I love those things! -cries-_


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